• Brian M Sheehan, Areg Grigorian, Sahil Gambhir, Shelley Maithel, Catherine M Kuza, Matthew O Dolich, Michael E Lekawa, and Jeffry Nahmias.
• Division of Trauma, Burns and Surgical Critical Care, Department of Surgery, 8788University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA, USA.
• J Intensive Care Med. 2020 Nov 1; 35 (11): 1346-1351.

ObjectivesTo determine whether, similar to adults, early tracheostomy in pediatric patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) improves inhospital outcomes including ventilator days, intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS), and total hospital LOS when compared to late tracheostomy.DesignRetrospective cohort analysis.SettingThe Pediatric Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) database.PatientsOne hundred twenty-seven pediatric patients <16 years old with severe (>3) abbreviated injury scale TBI who underwent early (days 1-6) or late (day ≥7) tracheostomy between 2014 and 2016.InterventionsNot applicable.Measurements And Main ResultsThe Pediatric TQIP database was queried for patients <16 years old with severe TBI, who underwent tracheostomy. Patient demographics and outcomes of early versus late tracheostomy were compared using Student t test, Mann-Whitney U test, and χ2 analysis. Sixteen patients underwent early tracheostomy while 111 underwent late tracheostomy. The groups had similar distributions of age, gender, mechanism of injury, and mean injury severity scores (P > .05). Early tracheostomy was associated with decreased ICU LOS (early: 17 vs late: 32 days, P < .05) and ventilator days (early: 9.7 vs late: 27.1 days, P < .05). There was no difference in total LOS (early: 26.7 vs late: 41.3 days, P = .06), the incidence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (early: 6.3% vs late: 2.7%, P = .45), pneumonia (early: 12.5% vs late: 29.7%, P = .15), or mortality (early: 0% vs late: 2%, P = .588) between the 2 groups.ConclusionSimilar to adults, early tracheostomy in pediatric patients with severe TBI is associated with decreased ICU LOS and ventilator days. Future prospective trials are needed to confirm these findings.Article TweetEarly tracheostomy in pediatric patients with severe TBI is associated with decreased ICU LOS and ventilator days.

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