Analysis of Risk Factors for Pneumonia in 482 Patients Undergoing Oral Cancer Surgery With Tracheotomy

Purpose Elective tracheostomy is a common procedure used in patients with oral cancer. However, secondary tracheotomy-associated pneumonia (TAP) is an important complication after surgery. This study investigated the risk factors related to postoperative TAP complications in patients with oral cancer. Materials and Methods A retrospective study was performed from January 2012 to October 2013. Data on patients who had oral cancer and underwent neck dissection or reconstructive surgery with tracheotomy were collected from the Hospital Information System. The predictive variables were age, gender, alcohol history, smoking history, basic disease (including diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease), tumor location, and duration of tracheotomy, which were extracted from electronic medical records. The outcome variable was TAP. Descriptive single factors and bivariate statistics were computed and the P value was set at .05. Results Four hundred eighty-two patients who received tracheotomy after oral cancer surgery were included in this study and 95 (19.7%) developed TAP. Univariate analysis showed that male gender (odds ratio [OR] = 1.853; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.083-3.17; P = .024 to