Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (PEG) Feeding Tube - Medical Animation
This animation may only be used in support of a single legal proceeding and for no other purpose. Read our License Agreement for details. To license this image for other purposes, click here.
Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy (PEG) Feeding Tube - Medical Animation
MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: Your doctor may perform a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, or PEG, to insert a feeding tube into your stomach if you were unable to take food by mouth for an extended period of time. Digestion of food begins in the mouth. When you swallow, food is pushed down into your esophagus, a muscular tube that carries food to your stomach where it is digested. From the stomach, food travels to your small intestine, where digestion continues and nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream. Your doctor may require a PEG feeding tube if you cannot eat, digest or absorb food due to esophageal cancer, oral surgery or stroke, major surgery, trauma, burns or anorexia, inflammation of the pancreas or radiation therapy, or inflammatory bowel disease affecting the small intestine. Before the procedure, you'll receive a sedative through an IV to help you relax. A local anesthetic will be administered at the site on your abdomen where the PEG tube is to be placed. The most commonly used PEG placement procedure is the Pull Method. During this procedure, your doctor will insert a lighted endoscope through your mouth and thread it down your esophagus and into your stomach. A camera attached to the endoscope will produce images of the inside of your stomach, which will be displayed on a video monitor. Next, your doctor will insert a needle through your skin into your stomach at the location where the PEG tube is to be placed. While doing this, he or she will use the endoscope to locate the end of the needle inside your stomach and encircle it with a wire snare. Your doctor will then pass a thin wire through this needle into your stomach, attach the endoscope to the wire, and pull both the endoscope and wire out through your mouth. At this point, there will be a thin wire entering the front of your abdomen into your stomach and continuing upward and out of your mouth. Your doctor will attach the PEG feeding tube to the wire outside of your mouth. By gently tugging on the other end of the wire, he or she will pull the tube back through your mouth and esophagus and into your stomach. Your doctor will continue to pull until the tip of the tube comes out of the incisions in your stomach and abdomen. A soft round bumper attached to the portion of the tube that remains inside the stomach secures it in place. The outer portion of the tube will be secured with a bumper as well, and sterile gauze will be placed around the incision site. In the alternative Push Method, your doctor will begin in the same fashion by using an endoscope to guide a wire through your abdominal wall and into your stomach. But instead of pulling the PEG tube through your mouth, he or she will push it directly into your stomach over the wire. After your procedure, you will continue to receive fluids through an IV for one to two days. Once there is evidence that your digestive tract is functioning, you will receive clear liquids through the PEG tube. If clear liquids are tolerated, you will receive a tube feeding formula through the PEG tube.
"You and your company are wonderful. Your service, turnaround time, quality
and price were better than I could have asked for. Please add me to your
long list of satisfied customers."
Robert F. Linton, Jr.
Linton & Hirshman
Cleveland, OH
"Your firm is great to work with and, most importantly for me, you get the
job done on time and with the utmost professionalism. You should be proud of
all those you employ, from KJ to Ben B. I've been especially pleased over
the years with the work of Brian and Alice, both of whom seem to tolerate my
idiosycratic compulsion to edit, but I've not found a bad apple in the bunch
(and, as you know, I've used your firm a bunch!).
I look forward to our continued professional relationship."
Kenneth J. Allen Kenneth Allen & Associates
Valparaiso, IN
"Thanks, and your illustrations were effective in a $3
million dollar verdict last Friday."
Joseph M. Prodor Trial Lawyer White Rock, British Columbia
"I would like to thank all of you at Medical Legal Art for all the
assistance you provided. It was a result of the excellent, timely work
that we were able to conclude the case successfully.
I feel very confident that our paths will cross again."
Fritz G. Faerber
Faerber & Anderson, P.C.
St. Louis, MO
Medical Legal Art creates medical demonstrative evidence (medical
illustrations, drawings, pictures, graphics, charts, medical animations,
anatomical models, and interactive presentations) for use during legal
proceedings, including research, demand letters, client conferences,
depositions, arbitrations, mediations, settlement conferences, mock jury
trials and for use in the courtroom. We do not provide legal or medical
advice. If you have legal questions, you should find a lawyer with whom you
can discuss your case issues. If you have medical questions, you should seek the advice of a healthcare provider.