Tracheostomy before and during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The aim of the study was to provide insight into the influence of the COVID-19 on the frequency and characteristics of urgent and emergent tracheostomies (TS), comparing data collected both before and during the pandemic. Our two hypotheses were that during COVID-19, more TS were performed in the emergent setting and that during COVID-19 more TS were performed under general anaesthesia.

Keywords

• upper airway obstruction
• emergent tracheostomy
• urgent tracheostomy
• anaesthesia
• sars-cov-19
• orotracheal intubation