• Bernard G Fikkers, Niels van Heerbeek, Paul F M Krabbe, Henri A M Marres, and Frank J A van den Hoogen.
• Department of Intensive Care, University Medical Center Nijmegen, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. b.fikkers@icstaf.azn.nl
• Head Neck. 2002 Jul 1;24(7):625-31.

BackgroundEvaluation of percutaneous tracheostomy (PT) with the guide wire dilating forceps (GWDF) technique.MethodsProspective study of perioperative complications, retrospective analysis of early and late complications in an ICU in a teaching university hospital.ResultsThe success rate of the procedure was 96.5%. The average procedure time in 171 consecutive patients was 5.0 min. Perioperative complications requiring surgical or medical intervention occurred in 6.4% of 171 patients. This included conversion to surgical tracheostomy, which was necessary in six patients (3.5%). Major complications while being cannulated occurred in 2.4% of 164 patients but seemed mostly unrelated with the GWDF technique itself. Late complications (after decannulation) were mostly minor and occurred in 22.6% of 106 patients. Only one patient (0.9%) had a symptomatic tracheal stenosis developed.ConclusionPercutaneous tracheostomy with the guide wire dilating forceps technique is easy to perform at the bedside with few late complications. However, in our study, perioperative and immediate postoperative bleeding complications (minor and major) occur quite often.Copyright 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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