Pediatric Tracheotomy: Indications and Outcomes

Özet

Objective: To investigate the indications and outcomes of our pediatric tracheotomy patients. Material and Methods: In this retropective study, we reviewed 47 pediatric patients who were per-formed tracheotomy by Otorinolaryngology Department between 2013 and 2018. Age, gender, indications of tracheotomy, presence of syn-dromic condition, duration of intubation, decannulation outcomes and mortality rates were collected. Results: The present study included 47 pediatric cases that underwent a tracheotomy, of which 48.9% (n=23) were female and 51.1% (n=24) were male. The mean age of the patients at the time of the tracheotomy was 4.20±5.94 years and the age range was 29 days to 17.99 years. The mean intubation time was 39.23±32.09 days (range 6–154 days). The indication for tracheotomy was neuro-logical deficit in 46.8% (n=22), cardiopulmonary disease in 29.8% (n=14), trauma in 17.0% (n=8), craniofacial anomaly in 4.3% (n=2) and airway obstruction in 2.1% (n=1) of the patients. Age was significantly higher in the trauma patients than in the patients who underwent a tra-cheotomy with indications of neurological deficit and cardiopulmonary disease (p=0.049; p=0.001). The intubation time was significantly higher in patients with cardiopulmonary disease than in patients with neuro-logical deficit and trauma (p=0.048; p=0.001). A syndrome was detected in 19.1 (n=9) of the patients. Of the patients, 46.8% (n=22) were sur-vivors, 42.6% (n=20) were non-survivors, and 10.6% (n=5) could not be reached. Death due to tracheotomy was not observed in any patient. De-cannulation rate was 40.9% (n=9) in survivors. Conclusion: Indications and results may vary in studies examining pediatric tracheotomy pa-tients. For this reason, it is important to follow up-to-date data on this issue and to reveal the differences. In this study, children with neuro-logical deficits and cardiopulmonary disease constitute the majority of pediatric cases undergoing a tracheotomy, with trauma ranking third among the etiologies. A limited number of tracheotomies were per-formed with indications of craniofacial anomalies and airway obstruc-tions. Intubation time was high in the group with cardiopulmonary disease and tracheotomy age was high in patients with trauma.