Tracheostomy in children: an ancient procedure still under debate.

T racheostomy is one of the oldest surgical procedures reported in ancient medicine books. It became widely used in the 19th century during the diphtheria epidemics in Europe, and then in the 20th century following a series of devastating poliomyelitis epidemics in the 1950s [1–3]. Around the turn of the 20th century, JACKSON [4] standardised the indications for tracheostomy, the technique itself and the instruments used; he developed anatomically correct tracheostomy tubes and paved the way for further improvement of the technique.