Talk:Tracheotomy

How to perform a tracheotomy

I was curious as to why this was placed in the tracheotomy article. I understand this would have a great deal of value to medical professionals, but the average person? How often do non medical people have to perform an emergency tracheotomy? And if that's what the instructions are geared towards, the section might be too technical? Take for example step #3 "Division of thyroid isthmus between ligatures". Most people would have no idea what that is, I have no idea what step #3 means.

JesseG 01:32, Feb 25, 2005 (UTC)

Because it is interesting and relevant. Even if it doesn't give you an exact idea, you still get a general idea. Don't give an Ameriflag 01:53, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Name

"Tracheotomy"/"tracheostomy"? Ground 02:41, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

• Essentially synonyms. Tracheotomy is "cutting into the trachea", tracheostomy is "making an opening into the trachea". I suppose the former might be used more in emergency settings, and the latter in elective settings, but basically there's not much of a distinction. - Nunh-huh 04:53, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

well i found the info helpfull, i had this done to me november 2005 after giving birth to my son. im alittle disapointed that it says nothing of the after effects, i now suffer with my throut, its sore to swallow now and then, and ive been left with a terrible scar, no one at the hospital told me how it worked or anything, they couldnt even tell me why i was unable to talk, or make any sound for that matter, never mind, i guess ill keep looking around for my answeres.

• • Nunh-huh (or someone else knowlegeable) could you please add to the article intro something about emergency settings versus elective settings? -Pgan002 05:34, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Confusion

The article states that tracheotomy is a surgical procedure and later in the second paragraph talks about the "indiacations" of it. Is it the name of a medical condition also? -- Sundar 04:42, Feb 25, 2005 (UTC)

An "indication" for a surgical procedure is a reason for doing it. I've translated it into English from "medical" now. -Nunh-huh

Fine. Thanks. -- Sundar 05:21, Feb 25, 2005 (UTC)

Loss of speech...

During the procedure, there is a risk of damaging a nerve called (I have to write in Latin, because we use it in medicine in my country) NERVUS LARYNGEUS RECCURENS. This nerve sends impulses (alows the function) of VOCAL CORDS. If one of the nerves, and there are two of them: n. laryngeus reccurens sinister et dexter, is damaged, a person will probably have a problem with their voice (as if you were singing all night, or have a bad cold). But if both of the nerves are damaged, the person would loose their speech. It is possible that the loss of speech is just temorary, because of the procedure...

I hope this has been helpful.

Stefan

Most anatomists/doctors under the age of 70 wouldn't use the latin name, they would call it "recurrent laryngeal nerve", so called because they loop down around some major blood vessels and recurr back up to the larynx. Likewise, they would say "left" instead of "sinister" and "right" instead of "dexter". This risk of nerve damage is the reason emergency tracheotomies are performed higher up, in the larynx and why tracheostomies have to be done in hospital under anaesthetic as i have mentioned below.--KX36 22:12, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

But in the illustration, the vocal folds are way up at the top, with the tracheotomy below. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.73.70.113 (talk) 23:50, 8 March 2011 (UTC)

Tracheo-oesophageal fistulation

Tracheo-oesophageal fistulation is a late comlication. The term fistula implies the development of an epithelialised tract between two surfaces. What i presume you are referring to is accidental puncture of the oesophagus which would indeed be an early complication.

Also with regard to the -otomy/-ostomy debate, tracheotomy would simply refer to a cut, tracheostomy is the creation of a stoma (Greek for mouth) which is more appropriate in this setting. But that could just be me being a pedant.

Euan Green

A fistula is a pathological hole, so a tracheo-oesophageal fistula would be a pathological hole joining the trachea and the oesophagus. I can find no reference in medical dictionaries or my textbooks which says it necessarily must be "epithelialised".--KX36 22:29, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Tracheotomy vs Tracheostomy

They are NOT the same thing. They are both openings in the upper respiratory tract to allow breathing to continue when there is a blockage higher up, however...

A TRACHEOTOMY is a temporary tube inserted in the larynx between the 2 major cartilages (cricoid and thyroid), peircing the cricothyroid membrane [1] , in an emergency situation.

A TRACHEOSTOMY is a permanent/long term tube inserted lower down in the trachea, in hospital conditions, under anaesthetic (There are several important nerves down there and so this is a relatively more risky opperation than a tracheotomy which famously can be performed with a pen by someone with relatively little medical training, without anaesthetic in an emergency.). [2] This image is a tracheostomy; it is correctly captioned in the article, but has an inaccurate file name and description. I can't really cite a source, I know this because I'm a medical student with a close relative with a permanent tracheostomy.

Note: I am a british medical student. In britain, the above is the case, but from a few confused web pages i have seen that either there is a massive confusion over the nomenclature or there is a difference between british and american nomenclature. It may be the case that in america, what i have described as a "tracheotomy" is called a "cricothyrotomy" and what I have described as a "tracheostomy" is called a "tracheotomy". What I do know is that this article refers to both procedures and calls them both "tracheotomies" (e.g. the reference to M*A*S*H and Scrubs, were what i call a tracheotomy, not what i call a tracheostomy; the "how to" is that of what i would call a tracheostomy), so something's wrong somewhere.

--KX36 22:05, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree. I'm a respiratory therapist in America, and I see cricothyrotomies done on TV all the time, and called tracheotomies. In addition, when I correct them here on Wikipedia, they are invariably reverted by those with little to no medical knowledge. At my facility in Michigan, we generaly describe the procedure as a "tracheotomy" and the hole as a "tracheostomy" (of course, we generally just call both "trachs". I won't say this is the official American English distinction, but that's what we do. IronLung2533 21:55, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

• Unfortunately this happens a lot on WP. Please add this info to correct the article, together with a reference. Then we will make sure that it stays corrected. -Pgan002 05:39, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree with some of the above. I am a respiratory therapist in Canada (so somewhere between UK and US English I suppose) and if you go to the roots of tracheotomy and tracheostomy (Greek, I think, not Latin), tracheotomy is the act of performing an incision into the trachea (a verb) and tracheostomy is the actual opening or hole that has been made into the trachea (a noun). A cricothyrotomy is in fact the act of creating an opening between the thyroid and cricoid cartilages but I wouldn't really think of it as a tracheotomy. Yes it's an emergent, short term thing but these cartilages are above the trachea and not a part of it. I suppose the hole created would be a cricothyrostomy, although I've never heard the word used.DougMike1 (talk) 17:14, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Link request

I would like to request that the following informational web resource be included under External Links:

http://hopkinsmedicine.org/tracheostomy (Videos, FAQs for patients, caregivers and patients) - Johns Hopkins Medicine

This is an educational resource for patients, caregivers and physicians and includes videos, FAQs that are answered promptly by a nurse practitioner specifically trained in trachoestomy care and information for living with and caring for a tracheostomy.

Apulcinella (talk) 20:49, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Waterboarding?

Not clear how important that mention is, albeit topical. Should we list every other case in which a tracheostomy might be performed? — Charlie (Colorado) (talk) 18:38, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Tracheotomy/Tracheostomy in popular media

Seems inappropriate in a medical article. Is there really a need for such information here? Wjousts (talk) 20:50, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Misuse of sources

This article has been edited by a user who is known to have misused sources to unduly promote certain views (see WP:Jagged 85 cleanup). Examination of the sources used by this editor often reveals that the sources have been selectively interpreted or blatantly misrepresented, going beyond any reasonable interpretation of the authors' intent.

Please help by viewing the entry for this article shown at the cleanup page, and check the edits to ensure that any claims are valid, and that any references do in fact verify what is claimed. Tobby72 (talk) 10:45, 5 September 2010 (UTC)

Cricothyrotomy, a similar procedure.

In an emergency setting a cricothyrotomy "crike" is often performed. The general public uses "trach" and "crike" as synonyms when there very different and often in the media in situations where a cricothyrotomy would be indicated a tracheotomy is performed. Also sometimes when a cricothyrotomy is done it's called a trach. Added a note note about the cricothyrotomy to avoid confusion. 67.253.15.163 (talk) 20:34, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Respiratory Distress as a sign for Tracheotomy Care

I added a few sentences on the indication for tracheotomy tubes for respiratory distress in a patient. This seemed to be left out of the section. I felt it was important to note that tracheotomy can be used for multiple indications. Aendicot (talk) 01:54, 14 October 2011 (UTC)