• Sotirios Spiliopoulos, Alexandros Merkourios Dimitriou, Maria Rosario Serrano, Dilek Guersoy, Ruediger Autschbach, Andreas Goetzenich, Reiner Koerfer, and Gero Tenderich.
• Department for the Surgical Therapy of End-stage Heart Failure and Mechanical Circulatory Support, Heart- and Vascular Center Duisburg, Duisburg, Germany sotirios.spiliopolos@ejk.de.
• Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2015 Jul 1; 21 (1): 117-8.

AbstractCoagulation disorders and an immune-altered state are common among total artificial heart patients. In this context, we sought to evaluate the safety of percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy in cases of prolonged need for mechanical ventilatory support. We retrospectively analysed the charts of 11 total artificial heart patients who received percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy. We focused on early and late complications. We observed no major complications and no procedure-related deaths. Early minor complications included venous oozing (45.4%) and one case of local infection. Late complications, including subglottic stenosis, stomal infection or infections of the lower respiratory tract, were not observed. In conclusion, percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy in total artificial heart patients is safe. Considering the well-known benefits of early tracheotomy over prolonged translaryngeal intubation, we advocate early timing of therapy in cases of prolonged mechanical ventilation. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.

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