Experience of pergastrostomal intestinal decompression for carcinomatous ileus

The condition of patients with carcinomatous ileus is marked by pain in the final stage of cancer, which ties them to hospital beds. Due to this state they lose valuable time with family. On the other hand, there is not yet any effective carcinomatous ileus therapy and surgeons face much difficulty in the treatment of carcinomatous ileus. We performed pergastrostomal intestinal decompression, and found that this tube is managed easily compared with general ileus tubes and can readily decompress the intestinal tract. A device to improve the QOL of terminal stage cancer patients, in particular QOL at home, will be in greater demand in the future. We consider our method to be one answer for this demand.