Effects of early tracheostomy on patients with acute severe brain trauma / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effects of early and late tracbeostomy on patients with acute severe cerebral trauma.Methods In the retrospective study,167 patients with severe brain trauma ( GCS ＜ 9 ) requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation ( MV ) were managed by percutaneous dilational tracheostomy (PDT) from May 2001 to December 2010.According to the transoral incubation MV duration,the patients were divided into the early tracheostomy (ET) group ( MV duration≤7 d,81 cases)and late tracheostomy (LT) group (MV duration ＞ 7 d,86 cases).The basic clinical characteristics,pre-and post-PDT MV period,total MV duration,length of post-PDT ICU stay,length of ICU stay,length of hospital stay and mortality were compared between the two groups.Results The two groups showed no statistical differences in aspects of age,sex,acute physiology and chronic health evaluation Ⅱ (A-PACHE Ⅱ ) score,GCS,trauma index and craniotomy rate (P＞0.05).Compared with LT group,ET group significantly shortened the pre-PDT MV period [ (5.16 ± 1.33 ) d∶ ( 1 1.64 ± 4.25 ) d,P ＜ 0.01 ],post-PDT MV period ( median15.0 d∶ 17.0 d,P ＜ 0.05 ),total MV duration ( median18.0 d∶26.0 d,P＜0.05),length of post-PDT ICU stay (median16.0 d∶21.0 d,P＜0.01 ) and length of ICU stay (median21.0 d∶32.0 d,P ＜0.01 ).But the two groups had no statistical differences concerning the length of hospital stay ( P ＞ 0.05 ),ICU mortality ( 17％ ∶ 14％,P ＞ 0.05 ) and in-hospital mortality (25％∶28.4％,P ＞0.05).Kaplan-Meier curves showed that the frequency of MV and ICU stay rate within 60 days in ET group were significantly lower than those in LT group.Conclusions For patients with severe brain trauma,early tracheostomy shortens the duration of MV and length of ICU stay without affecting their prognosis.Thereby,tracheostomy can be performed at early stage when managing acute severe brain injury.