jejunostomy(feeding)
Last reviewed 01/2018
A feeding jejunostomy is an artificial passage between the the jejunum and the anterior abdominal wall for the purposes of feeding. They may be sited under local anaesthesia in slim patients, but general anaesthesia is preferred. The stoma should be self-closing when the tube is removed.
A T-tube jejunostomy is one possibility; it is secured with purse-string sutures around the tube and abdominal wall. Alternatively, a fine-bore catheter may serve as the conduit for a Witzel jejunostomy. Again, a small enterotomy is formed and a Vicryl purse-string suture is tied around the sited catheter which is temporarily fixed in position by inflating its balloon. The catheter is sutured to the antimesenteric seromuscular jejunal wall and the abdominal wall.