A Gastrostomy Tube (often referred to as a G-tube, or a RIG when placed by a radiologist) provides a direct pathway for nutrition into your stomach through the abdominal wall.
Common Indications for Gastrostomy Tube
Your doctor may request this procedure if you:
- Have difficulty safely swallowing food or liquids (dysphagia) due to a stroke or other neurological conditions.
- Need long-term nutritional support due to severe weight loss.
- Are undergoing treatments for head, neck, or throat cancers that make eating impossible.
What happens during the procedure?
You will lie flat on your back on an imaging table. The radiologist will use an ultrasound to carefully locate your liver and spleen to ensure they are safely out of the way. Then, using continuous X-ray video for precision, they will numb the skin on your belly. A small needle is guided directly into your stomach. Sometimes, tiny anchors called T-fasteners are used to temporarily hold your stomach against your abdominal wall. Finally, a soft, flexible feeding tube is slipped through the opening and secured in place.
Do I need to prepare?
Follow the anesthesia and procedure team's exact food, feed, fluid, and medicine instructions. Do not pause anticoagulants or antiplatelet drugs without a coordinated plan.
How long does it take?
The placement is relatively quick, generally taking between 30 and 45 minutes.
Will it be painful?
You will receive local numbing medicine, which may cause a brief pinch and a burning sensation. You may also receive IV sedation to help you relax. You might feel a dull pushing or pressure as the tube is inserted, but you should not feel sharp pain.
What are the important limitations and safety checks?
Interventional radiology is minimally invasive, but it is not risk-free and is not automatically safer or more effective than surgery, endoscopy, medicines, or observation for every patient. Technical success does not always produce symptom relief or cure disease, and repeat treatment or another approach may be needed. Suitability depends on anatomy, disease severity, comorbidities, imaging, local expertise, and the alternatives available.
Risks vary by procedure and may include pain, bleeding, infection, contrast reaction, kidney injury, radiation exposure, vessel or organ injury, clotting, device movement or blockage, sedation complications, treatment failure, and an unplanned operation or admission. Tissue sampling can be nondiagnostic and requires pathology; tumor treatments require oncology follow-up. The consent discussion should cover the patient-specific benefits, material risks, alternatives, and what happens if the procedure cannot be completed.
Preparation is individualized. Give the team a complete list of anticoagulants, antiplatelet drugs, diabetes medicines, supplements, allergies, kidney problems, pregnancy possibility, and prior contrast reactions. Do not stop a blood thinner or diabetes medicine on your own: the procedural team and prescribing clinician must balance bleeding against thrombosis or metabolic risk and provide exact written instructions. Fasting, laboratory tests, antibiotics, sedation, escort, admission, and aftercare differ by procedure.
Know the urgent warning signs
After an IR procedure, seek urgent help for uncontrolled bleeding, fainting, chest pain, severe breathlessness, new weakness or confusion, a cold or very painful limb, fever or rigors, rapidly worsening pain or swelling, or a drain or tube that stops working, leaks, breaks, or comes out. Use the procedure-specific discharge instructions and emergency contact number.
Questions to ask the interventional-radiology team
- What is the goal, expected benefit, chance of needing another treatment, and reasonable alternative—including doing nothing for now?
- Who will perform the procedure, what image guidance and anesthesia or sedation will be used, and what experience does the center have with it?
- What exact medicine, fasting, blood-test, contrast, kidney, pregnancy, infection, transport, and overnight-stay instructions apply to me?
- What device or wound care is required, which symptoms are an emergency, and whom can I contact day and night?
- How and when will technical success, pathology, symptom response, and longer-term outcomes be assessed?
Sources and further reading
- CIRSE: Interventional-radiology procedures
- CIRSE: Clinical Practice Manual
- American College of Radiology: Manual on Contrast Media
Conclusion
A radiologically inserted gastrostomy can provide enteral access, but it does not eliminate aspiration or guarantee adequate nutrition. Peritonitis, leakage, bleeding, infection, buried or displaced devices, blockage, and accidental early removal can be emergencies; feeding and replacement must follow the tube team's plan.