G-Tube & J-Tube

KellieNurse06 · Jul 1, 2007

If a patient has both a G-tube & a J-tube, which one is normally for feeding & which for drainage?

I believe the J tube is for feeding/meds & the Gtube is for draining. It could depend on the patient, a patient I used to care for had both & we used to feed her by J Tube, and hook her G tube into a foley drainage bag overnight, and if it was more than 150cc we would re instill it back into her stomach......

Shanny246 · Mar 4, 2009

typically a patient has a gj tube because of reflux...they cannot handle having food in their stomach. I would say feedings are to go in the j tube, and the g tube should be hooked up to a ferrell valve for gastric pressure relief.

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kcochrane · Mar 4, 2009

It really depends on the patient. Make sure you check the non med orders in the chart. Right now I have one patient that gets tube feeding and meds through the J and drainage through the G. Another one gets his tube feeding through the J and meds through the G without any drainage. I had yet another awhile back that got his meds though his g tube and we clamped it for one hour and then it was unclamped to allow drainage. So there is no cut and dry answer, but in most cases as Shannon stated, the j-tube will be used for tube feeding.

Shanny246 · Mar 4, 2009

Kcochrane...that is very true! My son had feeding in his j tube, meds in his g tube, clamped for a bit and then back to ferrell valve. We did it that way because j tubes clog easier than g tubes.