Aim: Open cardiovascular surgery involves prolonged intubation, postoperatively in the intensive care unit monitoring. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of long-term intubation after coronary artery surgery on laryngeal and pharyngeal structures and the probable underlying causes for such effects. Material and Methods: Forty two patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery were included in the study. All patients underwent endoscopic examination in the preoperative period and approximately 7th postoperative day. Results: Mean age of the patients was 61±9.98 years, mean duration of intubation was 14.80±3.41 hours (h) and mean size of intubation tube used was 8.02±0.45 mm. The number of preoperative smokers was 25(59.52%), and number of patients with preoperative gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms were 8(19.04%). The level of postoperative laryngeal and pharyngeal pathological findings were 38.09%. Postoperative laryngeal and pharyngeal pathological findings were correlated with age, length of intubation and preoperative presence of the gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms (p˂0.05). However, no statistically significant correlation was determined between postoperative pathological finding and sex, tube type, tube diameter, smoking status. Conclusion: Age, presence of gastroesophageal reflux disease, length of intubation were identified as risk factors for the development of postoperative pathological laryngopharyngeal findings.
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