Gastric Lavage

Gastric lavage, also called stomach pumping, is the process of clearing the contents of the stomach using a tube passed through the mouth or nose, with small volumes of liquid repeatedly introduced and withdrawn. It has been used since the early nineteenth century as a standard way of removing poison from the stomach after an overdose. It is also used to clear the digestive tract before some surgeries, to judge the extent of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, as an emergency cooling method for a person with dangerously high body temperature, and in treating duodenal atresia, a newborn condition in which the small intestine is closed off near the stomach.