Complications of paediatric tracheostomy: A systematic review

Tracheostomy is a surgical procedure that can be associated with several complications described in the medical literature. Complications of tracheostomy are more common in paediatric age. The complications of tracheostomy can be divided into intraoperative, early post-operative and late post-operative. The objective is to perform a systematic review of complications of paediatric tracheostomy, including death between 2004 and 2023. PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar electronic sources were used for getting published articles in the English language. A total of 1149 articles were found, of which 42 were included in this review. The complications of paediatric tracheostomy were associated with age, low birth weight, prematurity, comorbidities and emergency procedures. The stomal lesions and granulomas were the most common complications. The mortality of the paediatric tracheostomy was mainly related to the obstruction of the tracheostomy tube or accidental decannulation. There are several complications associated with paediatric tracheostomy. The overall mortality of tracheostomised patients in paediatric age is not negligible.