Percutanous dilation tracheotomy: our experience

Percutaneous dilation Tracheotomy (PDT) is becoming a popular alternative to surgical tracheotomy. In our hospital, we recently adopted the use of the PDT in intensive care unit patients. The objective [corrected] of this investigation is to characterize and quantify the rate of complications for PDT. A prospective study of 60 PDT performed at different intesive care units, betweem September 2002 to July 2003. The intraoperative time for PDT was 8 minutes. Complications included 6 cases of mild intraoperative hemorrhage, 1 case of moderate intraoperative hemorrhage, 4 cases of mild postoperative hemorrhage and 1 case of subcutaneous emphysema. PDT is a good alternative to surgical tracheotomy and should be added to the otolaryngologists armamentarium of surgical airway procedures.