NG Care - Spigotting/Free Drainage?

[mellowish]

Hi!

I don't have much experience of looking after patient's with NG/NJ tubes, but sometimes they're either on free drainage or spigotted. Free drainage, is from what I've gathered usually if the patient has been complaining of a lot of nausea & vomiting. What about spigotted? I've seen it spigotted, when they've given medication via the NG for absorption but what other reasons are there for it to be spigotted? Is it in relation to the bowels working?

Thank you :)!

[CABG patch kid, BSN, RN]

I'm not familiar with the terms free-draining and spigoted. The 3 options at my hospital are 1. continuous infusion, used for feeding; 2. clamped; and 3. to suction. I think you may be referring to suction; we use low wall suction, it may be continuous or intermittent. The point of suction is to decompress the stomach, such as after CPR and bag/mask ventilation, when there may be excess air and gastric contents in the stomach. You would want to empty and decompress the stomach to prevent aspiration. It is our protocol to place a tube in all pts post endotracheal intubation and hook up to low wall suction.

Another reason for suction would be to empty the stomach of its juices after surgery, when the pt has ileus or otherwise is not digesting; you wouldn't want the juices to collect and just sit there, again putting the pt at risk of aspiration. One more reason I can think of would be in a pt with GI bleed, you would want to measure the output (the bleeding) plus you don't feed those pts.

Hope that helps.

[mellowish]

I think clamped is the same as spigotted. Spigotted, is when we put a bung on to the end of the NG (it's called a spigot). & Free drainage, is when the NG is placed onto a bag so we can see what contents are draining out like , stomach content etc. I've never heard or seen a NG being suctioned though? ^^.