Feeding tubes and stomach plugs serve an essential function of providing a route into the stomach when a person encounters the incapacity to eat food. The Oral Cancer Foundation reports that an alteration in neurological functions, damage to the mouth or esophageal (passage from the mouth to the stomach) tissue or the lack of ability to swallow creates conditions requiring feeding tubes or stomach plugs.
What Is a Feeding Tube?
A feeding tube consists of passage of a 1/4 inch diameter tube about 2 feet long in length through the nose into the stomach The tube stays in place via taping the tube to the top of the nose. Tubes composed of soft, flexible material like polyurethane or silicone rubber increase the comfort of the patient.
Advantages of Feeding Tubes
A health professional easily places a feeding tube without any surgical procedure. Feeding tube placement occurs only if no facial trauma or esophageal (connection between mouth and stomach) blockage exists, according to "Clinical Nursing Skills and Techniques." These long tubes remain in place usually up to 30 days. If longer periods of stomach tube feeding become necessary, a person undergoes placement of a stomach plug or feeding tube across the abdominal wall.
Disadvantages of Feeding Tubes
Inadvertent placement of a feeding tube into the lungs remains the chief complication with insertion of feeding tubes. The health professional checks for correct placement by pulling stomach liquid back through the tube or a chest X-ray verifies correct position. Other complications occur when the feeding tube remains in for longer periods. According to the "Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews," complications of ear and sinus infections, nasal irritation and patient discomfort arise with long-term placement of feeding tubes.
What is a Stomach Plug?
A stomach plug--- or medically called a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, PEG, tube --- constitutes placement of a short tube directly into the stomach through the abdominal wall. "Oncology Nursing" reports that stomach plugs present a more acceptable solution for long-term tube feedings.
Advantages of Stomach Plugs
Stomach plugs or PEG tubes eliminate nasal irritation and infection, and the unsightly presence of a tube on the face. When not in use, the patient caps and tapes the tube to the abdominal wall to prevent it from shifting around under clothes. Since patients report minimum discomfort after initial placement of stomach plugs, the stomach plugs or PEG tubes offer the most acceptable method for long-term tube feeding.
Disadvantages of Stomach Plugs
Placement of a stomach plug or PEG tube necessitates either an endoscopy or surgical procedure. Endoscopy procedures require sedation of the patient and placement of a scope down the esophagus to puncture the abdominal wall and place the tube or plug. A surgical procedure entails anesthesia and a small surgical incision to place a tube. A patient encounters possible complications from the abdominal stomach plug's or PEG's insertion sites of infection or skin irritation.
References
- Oral Cancer Foundation: Tube Feeding
- "Oncology Nursing"; Enteral Nutrition; Langhorne, M. E., Fulton, J. S. & Otto, S. E.; 2007
- "Clinical Nursing Skills and Techniques"; Enteral Nutrition; Perry, A. G. & Potter, P. A.; 2010
- "Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews"; Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy versus Nasogastric Tube Feedings; Gomes C. A., et al.; 2010
