Tracheotomy — Its Complications and Their Management

THE following comment, written forty years ago, is, unfortunately, still applicable:The operation of tracheotomy antedates medical writing. Though one of the oldest operations in surgery, it is the one most frequently done improperly, and oftenest mismanaged in the aftercare.1 There is little emphasis in medical or nursing instruction on the proper postoperative management of tracheotomy or the formidable complications that may attend it. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these problems.A study of 212 consecutive, unselected tracheotomies performed by the House Staff of the Boston City Hospital (January, 1957, through June, 1959) is presented. The patients . . .