Abstract
In a 30-year-old woman who presented severe symptoms of wheezing, dyspnea and general weakness brought on by obstruction of the tracheo-bronchial tree due to tuberculosis, tracheotomy was performed with subsequent improvement of her general condition. She was able to take short walks outside the hospital one month later and improved to the extent that she was discharged from the hospital after 6 months.
With shortening of the tracheal airway and active aspiration of secretions in the trachea made possible by the tracheotomy, it is believed that the vicious cycle created by the presence of the lower tracheal obstruction-obstruction of passage of air-respiratory volume decrease-increase, retention and difficulty in expectoration of secretion-dyspnea-general weaknessweakened respiratory movements-respiratory volume decrease-was broken, resulting in improvement of her general condition-
In addition to the indications for tracheotomy which have hitherto been given, this case emonstrated the advisability of actively performing this procedure for the treatment as well as for prophylaxis in cases with respiratory obstruction due to secretions, regardless of the presence or site of stenotic lesions in the airway. The fact that tracheotomy is now being advocated and widely used in this sense in western countries is also mentioned.
