National questionnaire on skills and techniques in pediatric tracheotomy surgery in Turkey

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the differences in surgical preferences of ENT Surgeons in Turkey with regard to pediatric tracheotomy. Design: Questionnaire study. Participants: ENT Surgeons. Materials and methods: The national multiple-choice questionnaire study included a total of 16 questions about physicians technical preferences, different methods and complications in pediatric tracheotomy surgery. It was planned and implemented with the support of a professional survey company (www.surveymonkey.com). Results: The questionnaire was answered by 591 ENT Surgeons; the percentage of the physicians performing pediatric tracheotomies in the previous year was 59.6%. Porty point four percent (40.4%) of the physicians had not performed tracheotomies in the pediatric age group and 57.9% had not performed tracheotomies in patients under one year old. Seventy point six percent (70.6%) of the physicians who had performed tracheotomies had made vertical skin incisions, 69.5% of them had removed subcutaneous adipose tissue, 81.4% of them had retraction the thyroid isthmus area from their field of view; 83.9% of them had made a vertical incision to the trachea, 82.5% of them had applied a stay suture to the trachea and 4.7% of them had used additional techniques for stoma maturation. The intraoperative mortality, early complication, late complication, and total complication rates were 3.9%, 32.7%, 21.2% and 53.9 respectively. Conclusions: This is the first large-scale questionnaire study with data on pediatric tracheotomy techniques and the practices of ENT Surgeons at a national level. Common approaches were observed among the.