Clinical analysis of the difficult postoperative decannulation resulting from tracheotomy between children and adults / 中国小儿急救医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the causes,diagnosis,treatment of the difficult postoperative decannulation resulting from tracheotomy between children and adults and the method of improving the rate of successful decannulation.Methods Clinical data of 56 cases with difficult decannulation after tracheotomy were analysed retrospectively,all the patients were admitted in our hospital between Jan 1990 and Oct 2006.All the patients were separated into two groups,children group including 24 cases of 14 months ～ 14 years old,adult group including 32 cases of age ranging 15 ～ 48 years old.The postoperative time after tracheotomy were 6 month ～ 1.5 year and 6 month ～ 2 year respectively.Results There were differences of the etiology,diagnostic choice and the clinical manifestation in the treatment of the diffficult decannulation after tracheotomy between children and adults.Children with difficult decannulation after tracheotomy occurred mainly in laryngitis and airway foreign body airway caused by obstruction retrieved after tracheotomy (14/24,58.33 ％),followed by the emergency tracheotomy,such as head and neck trauma (7/24,29.17％).Adults with difficult decannulation after tracheotomy mainly occurred in the throat caused by traumatic lesions of the larynx (including malformations,subglottic stenosis of larynx or vocal cord paralysis) (23/32,71.88％).The average block time in children with anti-inflammatory treatment was significantly lower than that in without anti-inflammatory therapy (6.2 d vs 10.1 d,t =4.26,P ＜ 0.01).However,there was no significant difference in the average block time in adults with anti-inflammatory and without anti-inflammatory treatment (t =1.63,P ＞ 0.05).In the course of treatment,rates of children consciously breathing difficulties (21/21,100％) was also significantly higher than the adult group (13/28,46.43％).Conclusion Children less than 3 years old should avoid tracheotomy.There is no definite relation between the successful treatment in the difficult decannulation and the age of the patients over 3 years old.The first failure treatment in children may be related with the local inflammation.When in treatment,doctors should observe the characteristics of respiratory difficulties,take attention to the influence of children psychological factors to the treatment.Children should be treated in the non-traumatic examination methods.