Tracheostomy Decannulation; A Catch-22 for Patients with Spinal Cord Injuries

Copyright: © 2013 Qureshi AZ. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Although tracheostomy is considered to be the most common surgical procedure performed on critically ill patients, there is no general consensus as to when a tracheostomy tube (TT) can be safely removed [1]. Bach and Saporito defined successful decannulation as extubation or decannulation and site closure with no consequent respiratory symptoms or blood gas deterioration for at least 2 weeks [2]. Removing a tracheostomy is of fundamental importance in rehabilitating a patient recovering from critical illness [3].