Patient's question:
Doctor, hello. My grandfather had a stroke before and is still in a coma, so he cannot defecate or take medication. The doctor said that feeding tubes must be used for defecation. However, before the tube feeding, they performed an endoscopy on my grandfather and found gastric retention. Why is this happening?Doctor's answer:
Gastric retention has two types: one is organic gastric retention, which is caused by gastric emptying obstruction due to foreign bodies blocking the gastrointestinal tract. The other is functional gastric retention, which is caused by increased gastric tension. Inflammation of the central nervous system can also lead to functional gastric retention. A stroke is an inflammation of the central nervous system, so there may be a possibility of performing a gastroscopy to remove the gastric retention.