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Safe and effective management of tracheostomy in COVID ‐19 patients
Author(s) -
Zhang Xiaomeng,
Huang Qiling,
Niu Xun,
Zhou Tao,
Xie Zhen,
Zhong Yi,
Xiao Hongjun
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.26261
Subject(s) - medicine , covid-19 , tracheotomy , intensive care medicine , surgery , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Background An increasing number of COVID‐19 patients worldwide will probably need tracheostomy in an emergency or at the recovering stage of COVID‐19. We explored the safe and effective management of tracheostomy in COVID‐19 patients, to benefit patients and protect health care workers at the same time. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 11 hospitalized COVID‐19 patients undergoing tracheostomy. Clinical features of patients, ventilator withdrawal after tracheostomy, surgical complications, and nosocomial infection of the health care workers associated with the tracheostomy were analyzed. Results The tracheostomy of all the 11 cases (100%) was performed successfully, including percutaneous tracheostomy of 6 cases (54.5%) and conventional open tracheostomy of 5 cases (45.5%). No severe postoperative complications occurred, and no health care workers associated with the tracheostomy are confirmed to be infected by SARS‐CoV‐2. Conclusion Comprehensive evaluation before tracheostomy, optimized procedures during tracheostomy, and special care after tracheostomy can make the tracheostomy safe and beneficial in COVID‐19 patients.