Percutaneous feeding tubes.

Patients who are unable to ingest adequate nutrients by oral intake present a common challenge for family physicians. Feeding difficulties can be caused by many factors, including anatomic, neurologic, and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Long-term nutritional support options include parenteral feeding and percutaneous enteral access. Nasogastric tubes are inappropriate for long-term outpatient use. Insertion of a feeding tube through the skin into the stomach lumen, known as percutaneous enteral access, can be used for patients unable to maintain adequate caloric intake orally for a prolonged period of time. It is inserted by either of 2 methods: percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy or an interventional radiology approach. Currently, the radiologic approach is the preferred one, as data have shown that it requires less postprocedural analgesia and is associated with a lower incidence of major complications, a higher success rate (nearly 100%), and greater overall patient satisfaction.1 This article focuses on radiologically guided feeding tubes.