Tracheostomy Timing in Adult Patients with Head Injury at King Abdulaziz Medical City Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Cross Sectional- Retrospective Study)

Introduction: Tracheostomy is one of the most common procedures that done to critical patients such as head injury ones to improve their situation. It is done by creating an anterior stoma in the neck and inserting a short tube to maintain stoma open.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine if there were benefits of early tracheostomy and the following components: ICU stay, hospital stay, ventilation- associated-pneumonia, weaning from Mechanical Ventilator, Glasgow Coma Scale, and decannulation.

Methods: This study was done retrospectively, and non-random sampling involved 56 head injury patients with a tracheostomy who were admitted to ICU in King Abdulaziz medical city (KAMC). Out of 56 head injury patients who underwent an early tracheostomy (≤12 days) were 25 patients and late tracheotomy (>12 days) were 31 patients. Using data collection form which contains demographic data, intubation duration, tracheostomy, decannulation, MV, Glasgow coma scale, VAP, ICU, and hospital stay.

Results: Total of 56 head injury patients with tracheostomy; their age ranges from 18-80 years with the mean 41.77years, height 168.95cm, and weighs 69.07kg. Head injury patient in this paper was classified according to the day that was done the procedure on after the injury occurred. Which result in 25 patients had early tracheostomy ≤12 days with a mean of (9.8 days) and median (10), whereas 31 patients had late tracheostomy >12 with mean of (17.677 days) and median (16).Patients with early tracheostomy showed significant (P-value <0.05) less length stay in ICU (22.68 days), MV duration (15.16 days), decannulation (27.80 days) compared with late trach ICU stay (33.10 days), MV duration (28.10 days), decannulation (47.03 days). VAP incidence among patients with a late trach was 12.90% and there were no VAP with an early trach. The median in early tracheostomy patients did not show any improvement in GCS (6 before trach,7 after trach) while in the late trach (7 before thrach,8 after trach). The hospital stays showed an insignificant p-value which means there were no differences between the early and late tracheostomy.

Conclusion: Early tracheostomy for head injury patients associated with less MV time, less VAP, shorter ICU stay, and faster decannulation. However, there was no significant effect on hospital stays period and no improvements on GCS.