Tracheotomy in Infant

Abstract

Five infants underwent tracheostomies during the past 4 years in our department. Their disease were severe laryngomalacia, bilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy, birth asphyxia, holoprosencephaly and congenital myopathy. A vertical incision was made in the trachea through the second, third and fourth tracheal rings. Care was taken that tracheal cartilage was not resected. Stay sutures were used to distract the cut edge of the trachea. The tracheotomy tubes were cut to the desired length not to abrade the carina or rest within the right main stem bronchus. The specially designed fenestrated tracheotomy tubes with one way valves allowed voice to be produced. All four cases suffered from no complications. There was one case with tracheal granulation. Two cases did not encounter undue difficulty with deglutition and speech development.