PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lukas, Jindrich
AU  - Duskova, Jaroslava
AU  - Lukas, David
AU  - Paska, Jan
AU  - Stritesky, Martin
AU  - Haas, Tomas
TI  - Standard surgical versus percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy in intensive care patients.
DP  - 2007 Oct 01
TA  - Saudi Medical Journal
PG  - 1529--1533
VI  - 28
IP  - 10
4099  - http://smj.org.sa/content/28/10/1529.short
4100  - http://smj.org.sa/content/28/10/1529.full
SO  - Saudi Med J2007 Oct 01; 28
AB  - OBJECTIVES: The present prospective randomized trial compared surgical tracheostomy (ST) and percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) in intensive care unit (ICU) patients in terms of outcomes and complications.METHODS: Between January 2003 and December 2005 tracheostomies were performed on critically ill ICU patients in Medical Faculty Hospital in Prague, with a random allocation of 105 patients for ST and 100 for PDT.RESULTS: The 2 groups did not differ significantly in terms of basic demographic characteristics or length of endotracheal intubation prior to the procedure. Following the procedures, the 2 groups did not differ significantly in terms of the time required for decannulation, decannulated patients or mortalities. Post-mortem examination showed that both groups were similar in terms of placement of the tracheostomy tube. Surgical tracheostomy was found to take longer time to perform than PDT (p<0.001). In terms of early postoperative complications, PDT was associated with a higher rate of postoperative bleeding compared to ST (p=0.0302).CONCLUSIONS: Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy is a simpler and faster technique to perform, but is associated with a higher occurrence of early complications, particularly postoperative bleeding.