Letter

Complications of percutaneous dilating tracheostomy

Dave A Dongelmans1, Ary-Jan van der Lely2, Robert Tepaske3 and Marcus J Schultz4*

Author Affiliations

1 Anaesthesiologist-Intensivist, Departments of Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2 Fellow Intensive Care Medicine, Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

3 Anaesthesiologist-Intensivist, Department of Intensive Care Medicine, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

4 Internist-Intensivist, Department of Intensive Care and Laboratory of Experimental Internal Medicine, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

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Critical Care 2004, 8:397-398 doi:10.1186/cc2941


See related research, http://ccforum.com/content/8/5/R299

Published: 24 August 2004

First paragraph (this article has no abstract)

We read with interest the retrospective analysis of patients who underwent percutaneous tracheostomy by Fikkers and colleagues [1]. We were surprised by the high complication rates with both the guidewire dilating forceps (GWDF) technique and the Ciaglia Blue Rhino (CBR) technique in their series (25.1% and 41.5%, respectively).