Percutaneous dilational trachestomy in the morbidly obese

Peri‐operative complications during percutaneous tracheostomy in obese patients

“…Despite its advantages over tracheal intubation and surgical tracheostomy for long-term airway management, percutaneous tracheostomy appears to be a high-risk procedure in obese patients. Other reports that percutaneous tracheostomy is safe even in the morbidly obese are based on small numbers (n = 1 [11], n = 3 [12], and n = 13 [10]). …”

“…As a result, intensivists are increasingly confronted with critically ill obese patients who require long-term respiratory support [10]. Although percutaneous tracheostomy can be successfully performed in obese patients [10][11][12]20], obesity is still regarded as a contraindication because of distorted and unidentifiable neck anatomy [21][22][23][24][25].…”

“…Other studies report on a total of 17 obese patients with BMIs ranging from 28.1 to 67.0 kg.m )2 [10][11][12].…”

“…Obesity has also become a common problem in intensive care medicine [9]. However, only a few reports assess the safety of percutaneous tracheostomy in obese patients [10][11][12].…”

Successful management of a morbidly obese patient for electroconvulsive therapy with elective tracheostomy

“…While percutaneous tracheostomy in the morbidly obese patient is associated with a higher complication rate, largely due to distorted neck anatomy and pretracheal tissue mass [25], many authors still advocate its use [26][27][28]. Ultimately, we decided that it was safer to expose our patient to the risk of securing an airway with a tracheostomy before undergoing frequent, repeated anesthetics.…”