A gastrostomy tube is commonly referred to as a feeding tube. Often people receiving radiation therapy for oropharyngeal cancer, or people that have had a stroke and cannot swallow properly without aspirating, cannot eat enough by mouth and have to be fead by another route. If a tube is required to be placed into the stomach for less than 2-3 weeks, then normally it can be done via the nasal cavity. But for longer term use the tube should be placed directly into the stomach through the abdominal wall. This procedure was once exclusively done in surgery with general anesthesia, but can now be done with IV sedation using fluoroscopy (real time X-rays) and a much smaller skin nick in the abdominal wall. If necessary, a special kind of tube called a grastrojejunostomy tube can be placed through the stomach so that the tip is in the small intestine.
A nephrostomy tube is a small catheter placed directly into the kidney from the back in order to drain urine that cannot otherwise drain in the normal fashion. This is normally due to a blockage in the ureter (the tube connecting the kidney to the bladder). After the patient has been sedated, access to the kidney is obtained by using ultrasound and fluoroscopic guidance (real time X-rays). Sometimes the end of the tube left just inside the kidney to drain the urine. If requested, a long catheter with a loop on each end, called a ureteral stent, can be placed through the kidney and into the ureter so that urine can drain from the kidney to the bladder. This can latter be removed by a urologist.
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