Short-term complications of percutaneous tracheostomy: experience of a District General Hospital–Otolaryngology Department

Abstract

Percutaneous tracheostomy is a procedure frequently carried out in a critical care setting. It is performed in the majority of cases by anaesthetists in the United Kingdom. The ENT surgeon is only called in situations where it is deemed by the intensivist that percutanous tracheostomy would prove too great a risk. In this situation the patient was taken to the operating theatre for a surgical tracheostomy. In our paper, a retrospective analysis was performed of all percutaneous tracheostomies carried out by ENT surgeons in the Royal Glamorgan Hospital, during a two-year period from July 1999 to July 2001, to assess whether percutaneous tracheostomy is a feasible option as a first line procedure in all elective tracheostomies. Thirty-six patients were included in the study. The mean age was 60.2 years. Haemorrhage was noted to be a problem in only one patient and two patients developed post-operative wound infection that was treated with systemic antibiotics. No other complications were encountered. We propose that all ENT surgeons should be trained in performing percutaneous tracheostomy and that it should be used as the gold standard in elective tracheostomy insertion. In cases where difficulties are likely to be anticipated, percutaneous tracheostomy can still be considered as the first option. This can be performed in the operating theatre setting with the knowledge that if any complication should occur then conversion to surgical tracheostomy can be done without delay.