There are several reasons why you may not be able to eat normally at the present time. There may be a blockage at the back of your throat or in your gullet (oesophagus), and this is preventing food going down normally. It may be that you have had a stroke and that this is causing you problems with swallowing, or your gullet may not be working properly for other reasons. If you have had a small plastic tube inserted through your nose, down into your stomach, it may not be large enough to get adequate amounts of food into your stomach. Obviously, if you do not receive enough nutrition, then you will become very ill.
A gastrostomy is a narrow plastic tube that passes through the skin of the abdomen directly into the stomach. Once in place the tube can be used to give you liquid food directly into your stomach, to provide nutrition. It is inserted using X-ray guidance, hence radiologically inserted.
A RIG is considered a very safe procedure, designed to improve your medical condition and save you having a larger operation.
