Retrospective evaluation of percutaneous tracheostomy methods applied in a tertiary intensive care unit

Tracheostomy is a usual procedure for patients who will be dependent on ventilator therapy for a long time to reduce complications associated with long-term endotracheal intubation. Different percutaneous methods focused on safety and convenience have also been described to perform tracheostomy. There are still some debates which technique is the most easy to applicate and safe. In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the Griggs' guide wire dilatational and Ciaglia's blue rhino techniques in terms of safety and convenience. After obtaining ethical approval from local ethical committee, file records of patients stayed in our ICU between March 2019 and March 2020 were assessed. Fifty four patients to whom percutaneous tracheostomy applied were included in the study Among the patients included in the study, the groups were similar according to the age, gender and duration of intubation. The procedure time was less in the Group GWFD (mean±SD; 18.62±6.92 mins) than in Group BR (mean±SD; 23.40±5.37 mins) (p: 0.006). There was no difference between the groups in terms of minor bleeding, major bleeding, pneumothorax, emphysema and hypoxia. But the total complication rate was higher in Group GWFD [10 (41.7%)] than in Group BR [5 (16.7%)] (p: 0.042). This study's results reveal that the GWFD technique is faster but the BR technique is safer. Differences in the definition of procedure time may have affected the results. For this reason, more studies are needed in this area.