Background/Introduction The 2014 National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death(NCEPOD) highlighted hospital tracheostomy care as a significant patient safety issue (1) Tracheostomy-related complications occur frequently in ward patients, and are potentially life-threatening. (2) Rapid recognition and management of blocked or displaced tracheostomy tubes is essential. According to...

Tracheostomy is a relatively common surgical procedure that is performed easily in an operating room or intensive care unit. Open tracheostomy is needed in patients requiring prolonged ventilation when percutaneous tracheostomy is inappropriate. Sometimes, it is difficult to achieve bleeding control in the peritracheal soft tissue, and in such cases, we usually use diathermy. However, the possi...

OBJECTIVE To compare percutaneous with surgical tracheostomy using a meta-analysis of studies published from 1960 to 1996. DATA SOURCES Publications obtained through a MEDLINE database search with a Boolean combination (tracheostomy or tracheotomy) and complications, with constraints for human studies and English language. STUDY SELECTION Publications addressing all peri- and postoperative ...

Patients requiring tracheostomies tend to have a longer length of stay due to their underlying disease. After a thorough literature search, Garrubba and colleagues found only three studies assessing the impact of multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) on tracheostomy patients on the ward. One consistent observation was the decreased time to decannulation after institution of MDT care when compared with...

BACKGROUND Tracheostomy remains a very important life saving surgical procedure worldwide and particularly in our environment where patients present late in upper airway obstruction. Little work has been done on this subject in our environment and therefore it was necessary to conduct this study to describe our own experiences with tracheostomy, outlining the common indications and outcome of t...

Despite early surfactant therapy, betterventilator strategies and greater use of noninvasive positive pressure ventilation, bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)continues to be a complication of premature births. The mainstay of supportive care for infants with severe BPD is mechanical ventilation with an endotracheal tube, however treatmentcan last for a long time and have many complications. When ...

INTRODUCTION Foreign body aspiration in the airway of children is a life-threatening clinical situation. Endoscopic retrieval alone is successful in the majority of patients. Occasionally, open surgical intervention in the form of tracheostomy, thoracotomy and bronchotomy and/or pulmonary resection is needed. We analysed the specific indications for tracheostomy during the removal of airway for...

Adverse outcomes related to tracheal occlusion and peritracheal skin breakdown stimulated a review of tracheostomy care. An evidence-based practice approach was taken to evaluate the problem. Organizational tracheostomy care policies were reviewed. Subcategories related to tracheostomy care were queried including securing devices, sutures and their removal, type and choice of dressings, prevent...

A number of problems have been reported with the use of standard length tracheostomy tubes in adult critical care patients. We measured the depth from the skin surface to the tracheal wall and the angle of the tracheal stoma during percutaneous tracheostomy. In vitro measurements were also performed on standard tracheostomy tubes. Comparison of in vivo and in vitro dimensions demonstrated that ...