• Giuseppe Gatti, Gabriele Cardu, Corrado Bentini, Pasqua Pacilli, and Peppino Pugliese.
• Department of Cardiac Surgery, Villa Torri Hospital, viale Filopanti 12, 40126 Bologna, Italy. giusep.gatti@tiscali.it
• Eur J Cardiothorac Surg. 2004 Apr 1;25(4):541-7.

ObjectiveTo determine the predictors of weaning from mechanical ventilation after cardiac operation with the Ciaglia percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy (PDT) in our preliminary experience in the use of this technique.MethodsWe prospectively analysed 33 consecutive patients (mean age 70.9+/-12.7 years) who underwent PDT in our intensive care unit after cardiac operation. The investigation involved preoperative and postoperative clinical status, operative procedure, indication and timing for PDT.ResultsPDT was performed after a mean time of 7.7+/-5.0 consecutive days of translaryngeal intubation. Twenty-four (73%) patients were weaned from ventilator after a mean time of mechanical ventilation of 15.8+/-9.1 days. Time point of PDT was the only predictor of ventilator weaning (P=0.0029): there was significant association between PDT performed before the seventh consecutive day of translaryngeal intubation (early PDT) and successful weaning from ventilator (P=0.01; odds ratio=11.2, 95% confidence interval=1.2-104.3). Among the patients weaned from ventilator, those who underwent early PDT had significantly shorter times of mechanical ventilation, and intensive care unit and hospital stays than patients with later PDT (P=0.035, 0.011 and 0.0073, respectively). Nine (27%) patients died of their underlying disease while still being mechanically ventilated; another six (18%) spontaneously breathing but still incannulated patients died afterward. No major PDT-related complications were observed. Two minor peristomal bleedings and one self-resolving subcutaneous emphysema were recorded.ConclusionsEarly PDT was a safe and effective method to wean from mechanical ventilation the cardiosurgical patients of this series.

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