Dilation device for placing catheter tubes

A method of placing a feeding tube in a stoma including the steps of:

• advancing an endoscope into a non-vascular lumen of a patient to insufflate and allow palpation to locate a feeding tube location site;
• inserting a needle into the non-vascular lumen and introducing a guide wire through the needle;
• inserting standard endoscopic forceps, an endoscopic snare, or an attachment fixture through a working channel of the endoscope;
• grasping the guide wire and pulling said guide wire up through the endoscope's working channel and out of the patient's mouth;
• securing a dilation device with its attached inflation lumen to the end of the guide wire and pulling said dilation device through the working channel and into the stomach using the guide wire;
• removing said needle from the lumen, while retaining the guide wire in the needle tract;
• pulling the dilation device up into and partially through the needle tract;
• placing a catheter tube over a distal end of said dilation device, the distal end comprising a stiffening portion;
• inflating an inflatable dilation and stiffening portions of said dilation device by gradually introducing controlled amounts of a fluid to increase pressure in the portions so the dilation portion smoothly and gradually expands the needle tract into a stoma tract while bringing a wall of said lumen against an abdominal wall and said stiffening portion expands inside said tube so that the stiffening portion and tube are joined by friction;
• advancing the tube and device into the non-vascular lumen to place the tube in the stoma;
• fully deflating the said portions and withdrawing said device through the working channel of said endoscope, withdrawing said device by retracting said endoscope and device together from the non-vascular lumen or withdrawing said device through said feeding tube.