Evaluation of early postoperative complications following tracheotomy

Publication date: Available online 24 May 2017
Source:Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Author(s): Danielle L. Freburg-Hoffmeister, John H. Hardeman, M. Franklin Dolwick, Charles G. Widmer
PurposeThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the early postoperative complications related to tracheotomy performed by surgeons and residents in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) at the University of Florida College of Dentistry (UFCD). The authors hypothesized that complications with this surgical experience would be significantly different among the different medical diagnoses of these patients and the number of complications would positively correlate with the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification.MethodsThe investigators implemented a retrospective study with the patient population including all patients that underwent a tracheotomy procedure by the UFCD OMS department between July 2011 and March 2015. Patients were evaluated for medical comorbidities (predictor variables) and tracheotomy complications (outcome variable) within one week of the procedure and were compared across ASA classes.ResultsA total of 319 patients were evaluated in this retrospective study. There were 14 patients identified with recorded complications including 11 patients with a bleeding complication (3.4%) and 3 patients with other complications (0.9%). The other complications included dislodgement of tube, subcutaneous emphysema, and cellulitis. The distribution of patients across ASA groups was not statistically different for patients with no bleeding versus bleeding complications (X² test, p>0.05). However, the distribution of patient sex was found to be different across ASA groups (X² test, p<0.001). The proportion of males to females in the bleeding complications group was not statistically different (binomial test, p>0.1). However, mean age was found to be statistically different for bleeding complications between sex (t-test, p<0.05; F=42.7, M=63.4).ConclusionsThe result of this study supports a low rate of complications after a tracheotomy procedure performed by faculty and residents at the UFCD Department of OMS and is lower than published tracheotomy complication rates reported by other surgical specialties.



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