Importance of a Team Effort in Success of Airway Surgery

The thoracic surgeon occupies a unique position in the team of those who are involved in looking after surgical patients in need of airway operations. It may be for urgent and life-threatening situations as in tracheo-vascular fistula or critical airway obstruction. Or it may be semiurgent in the intensive care unit in patients on assisted ventilation requiring tracheostomy (open or percutaneous). It may be elective for patients with tracheal stricture (benign or malignant), cervical exenteration, anterior mediastinal tracheostomy, and tracheo-bronchomalacia.