2012 Volume 63 Issue 6 Pages 451-459
Tracheostomy is a common surgical procedure performed by the otolaryngologist. However, very few reports exist concerning long-term decannulation and survival rates following tracheostomy. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between long-term outcomes of patients who underwent a tracheostomy and the causal diseases at an acute-care general hospital retrospectively. The subjects were 214 (155 male and 59 female) cases who underwent a tracheo-stomy during admission. The state of the tracheostomy tube and mortality were assessed for each case every 4 weeks until 24 weeks after the operation. Decannulation and mortality rates were compared among the causal diseases. The decannulation rate in all cases increased to a plateau of 31.8% 12 weeks after the operation. In an investigation of the individual groups, the group of cases with head and neck diseases, for which tracheostomy was performed because of unstable airway, achieved a 50%decannulation rate. The groups with cases of cardiac, respiratory, or gastrointestinal diseases, for which tracheostomy was performed because of prolonged mechanical ventilation, showed 31.8%,27.7% and 23.1% decannulation rates, respectively. The group of cases with neurological diseases included more than 40% of cases transferred to other chronic-care institutes with unknown outcome. In conclusion, these findings suggest that decannulation and mortality rates in tracheostomized cases at an acute-care hospital are dependent on the causal diseases and indications of the tracheostomy.
