Transgastric

Transgastric is a medical term used to describe pathways, access, or relationships that pass through the stomach wall. The term is formed from trans- meaning through and gastric, from Latin gastricus, meaning of the stomach.

In clinical use, transgastric describes techniques that enter or traverse the stomach to reach other structures. It is commonly encountered in endoscopy, laparoscopy, and interventional radiology. Examples include transgastric approaches to drain pancreatic pseudocysts (endoscopic ultrasound-guided cystogastrostomy), transgastric access in NOTES procedures (natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery), and other routes to access the peritoneal cavity by creating a gastrotomy.

Notable applications include cystogastrostomy, where a connection is created between a pancreatic pseudocyst and the stomach to allow drainage, typically using endoscopic or surgical methods; and transgastric biliary drainage when alternative routes are blocked. The shared principle is penetration of the gastric wall to reach a target beyond the stomach.

Risks associated with transgastric procedures include infection, leakage at the gastric puncture, bleeding, injury to surrounding organs, and fistula formation. Procedures are performed under imaging guidance and with airway protection, often in specialized centers.

In anatomy, the term may also be used descriptively to denote lesions or anatomical relationships that lie through the stomach wall, though such usage is less common than procedural contexts. See also gastrostomy, NOTES, cystogastrostomy, endoscopy.