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. 2020 Nov 30:2020:8861013.
doi: 10.1155/2020/8861013. eCollection 2020.

Open Tracheostomy for Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19

Estefanía Hernández-García  1 , Mar Martínez-RuizCoello  1 , Andrés Navarro Mediano  1 , Nuria Pérez-Martín  1 , Victoria García-Peces  1 , Carlos Velayos  2 , Belen Rodríguez-Campoo  3 , Guillermo Plaza  1
Affiliations

Open Tracheostomy for Critically Ill Patients with COVID-19

Estefanía Hernández-García et al. Int J Otolaryngol. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic, with many patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation. Tracheostomy can shorten ICU length of stay and help weaning. Aims/Objectives. To describe the long-term evolution of the critically patient with COVID-19 and the need for invasive mechanical ventilation and orotracheal intubation (OTI), with or without tracheostomy. Material and Methods. A prospective study was performed including all patients admitted to the ICU due to COVID-19 from 10th March to 30th April 2020. Epidemiological data, performing a tracheostomy or not, mean time of invasive mechanical ventilation until tracheotomy, mean time from tracheotomy to weaning, and final outcome after one month of minimum follow-up were recorded. The Otolaryngology team was tested for COVID-19 before and after the procedures.

Results: Out of a total of 1612 hospital admissions for COVID-19, only 5.8% (93 patients) required ICU admission and IOT. Twenty-seven patients (29%) underwent a tracheostomy. After three months, within the group of tracheotomized patients, 29.6% died and 48.15% were extubated in a mean time of 28.53 days. In the nontracheostomized patients, the mortality was 42.4%.

Conclusions: Tracheostomy is a safe procedure for COVID-19 and helps weaning of prolonged OTI. Mortality after tracheostomy was less common than in nontracheostomized patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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