Abstract
A review of 206 tracheotomies performed on 200 patients is presented. Seventy-one of these were emergency procedures; 135 were elective. The most frequently encountered primary pathologic conditions necessitating tracheotomy were: carcinoma of the larynx (133 cases), goiter (twenty-five cases), foreign bodies in the tracheobronchial tree (fourteen cases), and multiple papilloma of the larynx (eight cases). Although there was no immediate surgical mortality directly ascribable to the operation, eighteen patients died subsequently. Bronchopneumonia was the most frequent postoperative complication. It occurred in only thirteen cases in the entire series, and probably was present in two of these before opening of the trachea. Only three patients among the thirteen recovered. Mediastinitis was not encountered in any case. The deaths in the series were almost entirely the result of dyspnea and delay in opening the trachea rather than of the tracheotomy itself. 436 Tenth Ave., S. W.
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