Long term continuous oxygen therapy improves prognosis in patients with hypoxaemic chronic airflow limitation. Transtracheal delivery of oxygen permits adequate oxygenation of such patients at lower flow rates than are required for delivery by nasal cannulas, thus increasing the time for which portable oxygen cylinders can be used and improving the efficacy of domiciliary oxygen concentrators i...

BACKGROUND Spontaneous ventilation, mechanical controlled ventilation, apneic intermittent ventilation, and jet ventilation are commonly used during interventional suspension microlaryngoscopy. The aim of this study was to investigate specific complications of each technique, with special emphasis on transtracheal and transglottal jet ventilation. METHODS The authors performed a retrospective...

Transtracheal administration of oxygen is a new technique for long term treatment. Twenty patients with hypoxaemia due to chronic obstructive airways disease were studied while receiving oxygen through a microcatheter inserted percutaneously into the trachea. By bypassing most of the dead space and avoiding oxygen wastage at the face this method of delivery reduced oxygen requirements by roughl...

BACKGROUND Lung ventilation through a thin transtracheal cannula may be attempted in patients with laryngeal stenosis or "cannot intubate, cannot ventilate" situations. It may be impossible to achieve sufficient ventilation if the lungs are spontaneously emptying only through the thin transtracheal cannula, which imposes high resistance to airflow, resulting in dangerous hyperinflation. Therefo...

Over the past 50 years, a variety of techniques have been developed that have in common the insufflation of gas into the central airway to facilitate carbon dioxide (CO2) clearance. These include continuous insufflation of oxygen, transtracheal jet ventilation, high frequency jet ventilation, transtracheal oxygen administration, intratracheal pulmonary ventilation, and tracheal gas insufflation...

Pediatric tracheostomy dependence is associated with a variety of sequelae. Vocalization delay is commonplace and may result in long-term communication disability. Passy-Muir speaking valves are routinely used to allow such children to vocalize. Unfortunately, not all tracheostomy dependent children can tolerate the placement of a speaking valve. Elevated transtracheal pressures are often assoc...

Transtracheal puncture has long been known as a safe, low-cost procedure. However, with the advent of bronchoscopy, it has largely been forgotten. Two researchers have suggested the use of α-amylase activity to diagnose salivary aspiration, but the normal values of this enzyme in tracheobronchial secretions are unknown. We aimed to define the normal values of α-amylase activity in tracheobronch...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Successful awake fibreoptic intubation (AFOI) depends on adequate topical anaesthesia of the airway. We aimed to compare efficacy of atomised local anaesthetic versus transtracheal topical anaesthesia for AFOI. METHODS It was a prospective, randomised controlled study of 33 patients with the American Society of Anesthesiologists' physical status 1-3 with anticipated diffic...