[Tracheotomy or intubation? Problems with long-term intensive care patients]

Three groups of probands were established among 77 long-term intensive care patients. Group I comprised cases intubated for more than 7 days, group II underwent tracheotomy after a variable time of intubation, and group III were tracheotomised immediately. All complications were severalfold more frequent in patients with hypercatabolic underlying disease than in those with less severe underlying disease. Long-term intubation led generally to laryngeal damage after one week and increased frequency of pneumonia after two weeks. Patients with tracheotomy after an interval showed frequent pneumonias only after one month. Inflammatory changes of trachea, bronchi, and tracheostoma with the appropriate consequences were frequent. Lower tracheal stenoses occurred in approximately 10% of cases in group II. The lowest complication rate was observed in patients tracheotomised immediately. Patients with hypercatabolic disease without prospects for improvement in the near future should be tracheotomised as early as possible. Tracheotomy can be postponed for up to three weeks if regression is to be expected in that time. In diseases without rapid physical deterioration the indication for tracheotomy can be postponed for six weeks.