BACKGROUND In the past decade, the rate and utilization of veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) has increased dramatically. A single catheter technique has recently come into favour for providing VV-ECMO. Although it has been shown that intensivists can safely place these catheters, the safety of decannulation by intensivists has not been reported in the literature. OBJEC...

BACKGROUND Multidisciplinary tracheostomy teams have been successful in improving operative outcomes; however, limited data exist on their effect on postoperative care. We aimed to determine the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary tracheostomy service alone and following implementation of a post-tracheostomy care bundle on rates of decannulation and tolerance of oral diet before discharge. M...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS To determine the rate of persistent tracheocutaneous fistula (TCF) in pediatric patients managed with stomal maturation at the time of the tracheostomy. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective chart analysis of all cases of tracheostomy performed at a tertiary pediatric care center between 2001 and 2011. METHODS The use of stomal maturation, number of decannulations, number of pers...

To set the foundation to develop a disease-based, operation-specific model to predict the outcome of pediatric airway reconstruction surgery, we performed a retrospective database review of children operated on at a single, tertiary-care children's hospital. Over the 12-year period 1988 to 2000, a total of 1,296 airway reconstruction procedures were performed. Out of these, charts were identifi...

BACKGROUND Tracheostomy is one of the most common surgical procedures performed in critical care patient management; more specifically, ventilation through tracheal cannula allows removal of the endotracheal tube (ETT). Available literature about tracheostomy care and decannulation is mainly represented by expert opinions and no certain knowledge arises from it. METHODS In lack of statistical...

INTRODUCTION When patients are transferred from intensive care units (ICUs) to general wards with a tracheostomy in situ, there is a risk of suboptimal care and increased morbidity. The aim of this study was to elucidate the management of patients with a tracheostomy in situ at discharge from the ICU to the ward. MATERIAL AND METHODS We performed an electronic questionnaire survey among heads...

OBJECTIVE To determine the relationship between tracheostomy tube in place after intensive-care-unit (ICU) discharge and hospital mortality. METHODS We conducted a prospective observational cohort study in a medical-surgical ICU in a tertiary-care hospital that does not have a step-down unit. We recorded clinical and epidemiologic variables, indication and timing of tracheostomy, time to deca...

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 gene...

Tracheostomy is an important procedure in children requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation. We conducted a retrospective study to assess the frequency, indications, postoperative course and short-term outcome of elective tracheostomy in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) of Pakistan. Twenty-five patients underwent tracheostomy in last 5 years (2.2 % of all PICU admissions). Mean age of ...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyze the functional and oncologic results of supracricoid partial laryngectomy. STUDY DESIGN Case series with chart review. SETTING Katip Celebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Turkey. SUBJECT AND METHODS The medical records of 56 patients, who underwent supracricoid partial laryngectomy between March 2002 and December 20...