• Kay Mitton, Krystyna Walton, and Manoj Sivan.
• a Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (Neurorehabilitation) , Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust , Salford , UK.
• Brain Inj. 2017 Jan 1; 31 (2): 267-271.

ObjectiveTo analyse whether the outcome of tracheostomy weaning is influenced by the site of injury in acquired brain injury.MethodsA retrospective case review of all the consecutive admissions to an acute neurorehabilitation unit in a 2-year period was performed. Patients with a diagnosis of acquired brain injury and tracheostomy in situ were included in this study.ResultsOne hundred and six patients were included in the analysis. They were considered in two groups based on the site of brain injury: Group S, those with supratentorial brain injury only; and Group I, those with any injury with infratentorial involvement. Fifty-one (82%) patients in Group S were successfully weaned from the tracheostomy, compared to only 27 (61%) of patients in Group I. In other words, the proportion of unsuccessful weans (long-term tracheostomy) was 11 (18%) in Group S compared to 17 (39%) in Group I. The statistical significance of successful weans between the groups was p = 0.01 (Chi-square test). The common reasons for unsuccessful weaning were excessive secretion load and recurrent aspiration pneumonia.ConclusionsPatients with isolated supratentorial brain injury have a statistically significant higher chance of successful decannulation when compared to those patients with any infratentorial brain injury involvement.

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