Safety and complications of percutaneous tracheostomy in a cohort of 800 mixed ICU patients.

Percutaneous tracheostomy is used primarily to assist weaning from mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit. We report our experiences of 800 such procedures performed in the intensive care unit by a collaborative team (critical care and ENT specialists). Most procedures (85.6%) were performed by residents supervised by the intensive care unit staff. Complications occurred in 32 patients (4%). Intraprocedural complications occurred in 17 patients (2.1%), early postprocedural complications in six (0.75%), and late postprocedural complications in nine (1.1%). No deaths were directly related to percutaneous tracheostomy. The incidence of complications was greater in percutaneous tracheostomy performed by the residents during their initial five attempts compared to their later attempts (9.2% vs 2.6%, p < 0.05). The low incidence of complications indicates that bedside percutaneous tracheostomy can be performed safely as a routine procedure in daily care of intensive care unit patients.