Characteristics, complications, and a comparison between early and late tracheostomy: A retrospective observational study on tracheostomy in patients with COVID‐19‐related acute respiratory distress syndrome

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic spread worldwide in 2020, the number of patients requiring intensive care and invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) has increased rapidly. During the pandemic, early recommendations suggested that tracheostomy should be postponed, as the potential benefits were not certain to exceed the risk of viral transmission to healthcare workers. The aim of this study was to assess the utility of tracheostomy in patients with COVID‐19‐related acute respiratory distress syndrome, in terms of patient and clinical characteristics, outcomes, and complications, by comparing between early and late tracheostomy. METHODS: A multicenter, retrospective observational study was conducted in Jönköping County, Sweden. Between 14 March 2020 and 13 March 2021, 117 patients were included. All patients ≥18 years of age with confirmed COVID‐19, who underwent tracheostomy were divided into two groups based on the timing of the procedure (≤/>7 days). Outcomes including the time on IMV, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, and mortality 30 days after ICU admission, as well as complications due to tracheostomy were compared between the groups. RESULTS: Early tracheostomy (<7 days, n = 56) was associated with a shorter median duration of mechanical ventilation (7 [12], p = 0.001) as well as a shorter median ICU stay (8 [14], p = 0.001). The most frequent complication of tracheostomy was minor bleeding. With the exception of a higher rate of obesity in the group receiving late tracheostomy, the patient characteristics were similar between the groups. CONCLUSION: This study showed that early tracheostomy was safe and associated with a shorter time on IMV as well as a shorter ICU length of stay, implicating possible clinical benefits in critically ill COVID‐19 patients. However, it is necessary to verify these findings in a randomized controlled trial.