Can't Intubate Can't Oxygenate; Roadside to Resus
Highlights
- Percutaneous Endoscopic Tracheostomy in Children: A Review
Key takeaways:
- Pediatric anesthesiologists recommend a percutaneous approach for children aged 8 years or older.
- The approach is straightforward, but the literature offers equivocal answers for those under 8 years old.
Transcript:
Speaker 2
Yeah, well, thankfully they are quite rare and there were only 13 major complications that were shown in NAPF4 and only five of those needed front of neck access. But of course, I think most of us know this is likely to under-represent the true number that are out there and certainly internationally the picture might be very different. Now the surgical approach itself is recommended in children aged over eight years. So that is relatively straightforward in terms of our prep, but the literature does suggest using a smaller ET tube, as you'd imagine. So a four millimeter internal diameter tube is recommended in several of the papers that I went through. Now for those patients under eight years though, well, okay, this gets a little bit tricky to be honest with you as the literature offers some really equivocal answers. But the association of pediatric anitatists of Great Britain and Ireland and the Difficult Airways Society both recommend a percutaneous (Time 0:41:55)