Use and safety of percutaneous tracheostomy in intensive care. Report of a postal survey of ICU practice.
A brief questionnaire was sent to 231 clinical directors of intensive care units in England and Wales to investigate the use of percutaneous tracheostomy. There was a 76% response rate. Percutaneous tracheostomies were in use in 78.4% of units. The Ciaglia technique was the most commonly used, with 31.3% routinely using fibreoscopy as part of their technique. Only 12% of units routinely provided long-term follow up of their percutaneous tracheostomies. Overall, 78.4% thought that percutaneous tracheostomy was safe and 66.7% considered percutaneous tracheostomy to be the technique of choice for Intensive Care patients. Percutaneous tracheostomy is now a well-established technique. However, the limited use of fibreoscopy and the lack of long-term follow-up are areas of concern.
Cooper
R M
RM
Department of Anaesthesia, Royal Lancaster Infirmary, UK.
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004724:Endoscopy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004739:England; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards*; D008134:Long-Term Care; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014139:Tracheostomy / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014600:Utilization Review; D014852:Wales