Percutaneous and Surgical Tracheostomy in Elderly

Abstract

Although PT has become increasingly popular in the recent years, it is essential to appropriately select patients to undergo this procedure. While ST can be applied to every patient, PT cannot be applied to every patient. Anatomical variations, previous surgical procedures applied to the neck area, or presence of coagulopathy may not allow PT administration [2]. PT may need to be converted to ST because of complications such as bleeding, misplacement, hypotension, air embolism, apnoea, cardiac arrest, thyroid and cricoid cartilage damage, recurrent laryngeal nerve damage and posterior tracheal wall damage. The most common postoperative complications associated with tracheostomy are bleeding, subcutaneous emphysema, infection, pneumothorax, tracheal stenosis, and tracheoesophageal fistula [3][4][5][6][7][8].