Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy in patients with head and neck tumors: literature review and institutional experience

Introduction. Patients with head and neck tumors are often require tracheostomy. This procedure represents complex surgical manipulation and is associated with risk of certain complications, including life-threatening. The study objective is to essess the results of percutaneous tracheostomy with the new SafeTrach technique. Materials and methods. The study included 21 patients. All patients had a tracheostomy performed using the SafeTrach technique. Results. Mean duration of tracheostomy with SafeTrach technique was 11.8 ± 3.4 minutes independently of patients’ body mass index or previous treatment (correlation coefficients r = 0.08, p = 0.7 and r = 0.08, p = 0.73, respectively). Among all possible complications of tracheostomy only 1 (4.7 %) case of bleeding in postoperative period was noted in our study. Conclusion. The SafeTrach technique combines all the benefits of open and percutaneous tracheostomy. It is characterized by simplicity, it does not require endoscopic control, that indicates the feasibility of its widespread implementation.