Muhammad Shafi, Zahid Suhail, Alid A Ashrafi S Khalid, Yousuf Khambaty, Sm Qaisar Sajjad.
Conventional tracheostomy- a study of indications & complications at tertiary care hospitals of urban Sindh.
Pak J Surg Jan ;30(1):85-90.

Objective: Th e current study was conducted on tracheostomy operation to highlight the different indications and complications encountered at the tertiary care level hospitals of urban Sindh. Study design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Sett ing and Duration: Th is multicenter study was conducted at the departments of E.N.T. & Head Neck surgery, Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad, Abbasi Shaeed Hospital Karachi and Baqai Medical University Hospital Karachi for a period of one year from November 2011 to October 2012. Methodology: Out of 287 cases, 266 were selected of either gender or age that underwent tracheostomy for whatever indication in emergency situation or in elective environment. All the patients were registered with a defi nite protocol beside the diff erent essentials. Th e indications of the procedure and the intra operative, early & late post operative complications were recorded on a predesigned proforma. Results: Th is study spanned over a period of one year. 266 patients were included in the study. 57.9% of the patients were male and 42.1% were females. Th e age ranged from 4-70 years. 55.6% of the patients underwent tracheostomy in emergency while 44.4% were tracheostmized electively. Th e commonest indications were laryngeal & laryngopharyngeal malignancies which aff ected 47.7% patients. Th e overall rate of complications was 31.2%. Among them 39.75% were per operative, 38.55% were early post operative and 21.68% were late post operative. 22.93% complications occurred during emergency tracheostomy while 8.27% complications occurred during tracheostomies done electively. Th e commonest complication was surgical emphysema which aff ected 16.86% patients. Conclusion: Since the most frequent indications in the current study were laryngo pharyngeal malignancy and head and neck trauma, therefore most of the patients underwent tracheostomy in emergency in operation room. Th is study endorsed the common observation of various studies that complications are more frequent in emergency mode. However this study also observed that the frequency of complications is more with less experienced surgical residents.

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