2Elazıg Fethi Sekin City Hospital, Department of Anaesthesiology and Reanimation, Elazıg, TURKEY DOI : 10.31086/tjgeri.2020.153 Introduction: Increase in life expectancy across the globe has contributed to a rise in geriatric population. This has also led to an increase in geriatric ailments, causing an increased number of geriatric patients requiring intensive care, including mechanical ventilation. Tracheostomy is commonly surgical procedures performed in geriatric patients hospitalised at intensive care unit. Studies comparing percutaneous and surgically performed tracheostomy on geriatric patients with a mechanical ventilator requirement are rare.
Materials and methods: A significant proportion of ventilator-dependent geriatric patients need a tracheostomy during an intensive care unit stay. A tracheostomy can be performed using the traditional surgical tracheostomy or percutaneous dilatory tracheostomy methods. In the current study, we retrospectively compared different tracheostomy methods in intensive care unit geriatric patients with regard to procedure duration, the safety of the procedure and complications. A total of 55 geriatric patients underwent tracheostomy and demographic characteristics and outcomes were recorded.
Results: From the 55 patients, %59.1 were women. The mean age of patient was 71±15.4 years. The mean value of procedural time was significantly lower in the percutaneous dilatory tracheostomy group compared with surgical tracheostomy group (P<0.001). Bleeding, accidental decannulation, air leak from the fistula were also significantly lower in the percutaneous dilatory tracheostomy group compared with the surgical tracheostomy group. Percutaneous dilatory tracheostomy is safer and simpler than surgical tracheostomy in intensive care unit geriatric patients.
Conclusion: Percutaneous dilatory tracheostomy via Griggs tecnique is safe, cost-effective and can be done rapidly at bedside in intensive care unit geriatric patients.
Keywords : Tracheostomy; Intensive Care Units; Geriatrics