Tracheostomy in spinal cord injured: frequency and follow up

Among 600 traumatic spinal cord injured (SCI) patients admitted during a 20 year period, 67 had a tracheostomy performed (11.2%). Of these 67 patients 46 had a cervical SCI. A concomitant thoracic trauma had occurred significantly more often in the group with thoracic or lumbar SCI than in those with a cervical SCI. The period from injury to tracheostomy was 0-48 days (median 4.4 days), and from tracheostomy to decannulation 3-167 days (median 31 days). At follow up 20 (30%) had died, primarily because of respiratory problems. Of the remaining 47 patients, 43 (91%) responded to a follow up questionnaire 3.5-21.7 years (median 10.4 years) after the injury. In the follow up 53% reported never to have had any inconvenience or trouble related to the tracheostomy. The major inconvenience among the others had been of cosmetic origin (28%), and 3 had had a surgical revision for this reason. At the time of follow up 9 patients (21%) still had certain complaints, primarily described as difficulty in swallowing. Minitracheostomy might in the future reduce the number of these complications.