Effect of early tracheotomy on severe traumatic brain injury in elderly patients and its influence on prognosis

Objective To explore the clinical effect of early tracheotomy in the treatment of severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) in the elderly and its influence on blood gas index, infection and prognosis. Methods One hundred and six elderly patients with sTBI admitted to our hospital from 2016 to 2018 were randomly divided into control group and observation group, 53 cases in each group. All patients were treated with the same basic treatment. The control group received tracheotomy more than 24 h after injury, while the observation group received tracheotomy less than 24 h after injury. The effects of treatment effect, blood gas index changes, hospitalization, pulmonary infection rate and mortality were compared between the two groups. Results The duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU hospitalization, total hospitalization time and infection control time in the observation group were significantly less than those in the control group (P 0.05). There was no significant difference in mortality between the observation group and the control group (P>0.05). Conclusion Early tracheotomy less than 24 h after injury is more conducive to improve hypoxemia, ventilation function and brain tissue hypoxia in elderly patients with sTBI, reducing the incidence of pulmonary infection and shortening hospitalization time. It is worth popularizing and applying. Key words: Early tracheotomy; Severe traumatic brain injury; Blood gas index; Infection