OBJECTIVES Delineation of clinical characteristics affecting the airway in a cohort of craniofacially deformed children. What factors differ between patients requiring and those not requiring surgical airway intervention? What factors predispose to the need for tracheotomy? When can decannulation be expected if tracheotomy is required? What interventions aid decannulation? STUDY DESIGN Five-y...

BACKGROUND A study was undertaken to determine the oropharyngeal carrier state of potentially pathogenic microorganisms (PPM) and the magnitude of colonisation and infection rates of the lower airways with these PPM in children requiring long term ventilation first transtracheally and afterwards via a tracheotomy. METHODS A 5 year, prospective, observational cohort study was undertaken in 45 ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the appropriateness of postoperative chest radiography after adult tracheotomy. DESIGN Retrospective case series. SETTING Tertiary care academic medical center. PATIENTS The records of 379 consecutive adult patients who underwent tracheotomy by the Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Service from January 1992 to December 1996 were available for review and met inclu...

Tracheotomy is commonly performed in ventilator-dependent patients. Disadvantages to the procedure are perioperative complications, long-term airway injury, and the cost of the procedure. Benefits ascribed to tracheotomy vs prolonged translaryngeal intubation include improved patient comfort, more effective airway suctioning, decreased airway resistance, enhanced patient mobility, increased pot...

BACKGROUND Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH) is an idiopathic spinal disease common in the elderly and characterized by flowing ossification and osteophyte formation along the spinal column. Cervical hyperostosis is capable of producing dysphagia, stridor, and airway obstruction; however, there are no extant reports of true paralysis of bilateral vocal folds in patients fulfilling...

as to make it a complete work of reference for the student or practitioner. In such a work we naturally find prominence given to such subjects as "throat affections of infectious fevers, gout, and rheumatism" chronic infective diseases," such as syphilis, tuberculosis, and leprosy; and " neuroses of the larynx accordingly there are useful chapters on each of these topics, while shorter descript...

Indications for internal closure of the larynx are the same as those set out by Smith, Spalding, Ardran, and Livingstone (1965) for laryngectomy in non-malignant conditions. There should be no prospect of recovery from the pharyngeal palsy which endangers the life of the patient from inhalation pneumonia. The advantage of closure of the larynx over laryngectomy is that it is only a mildly traum...

Tracheostomy directly exposes the lower respiratory tract to the exogenous bacteria increasing the risk of colonization of lower respiratory tract. The present study was done in patients who underwent tracheostomy and the study compares bacterial flora of oropharnyx and lower respiratory tract during tracheostomy with that of the bacterial flora of the lower respiratory tract during the first t...

Podnos YD, Williams RA. Fires in the operating room. Bull Am Coll Surg 1997; 32:14-17 Aly A, Mcllwain M, Duncavage JA. Electrosurgery-induced endotracheal tube ignition during tracheotomy. Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol 1991; 100:31-33 Markovicz S, Chrostek CA, Amarel JF. Surgical laparoscopic energy and lateral thermal damage: the proceedings of the Society for Minimally Invasive Therapy. Berlin: So...