Introduction: Tracheostomy is an operative procedures that creates a surgical airway in the trachea to bypass an upper airway obstruction the procedure exteriorizes the trachea to the skin of the neck, producing an opening into the trachea through the neck which can be temporary or permanent. General indications for the placement of tracheostomy include acute respiratory failure with the expected need for prolonged mechanical ventilation, traumatic or catastrophic neurologic insult requiring airway or mechanical ventilation or both, failure to wean from mechanical ventilation, upper airway obstruction, difficult airway, and copious secretions. There is no sufficiency data describing the common indications for tracheostomy at our setting and Tanzania at large.
Objectives: To describe common indications of tracheostomy and related primary clinical diagnosis among patients admitted at Bugando medical centre.
Methodology: The study was a hospital based prospective study. Data were collected from patients who underwent tracheostomy between September and December 2016 at Bugando medical centre. Collected data was checked and entered to IBM SPSS statists version 20 program and computed for analysis by IBM SPSS version 20. Ethical clearance was though and obtained from CUHAS/BMC Institutions Research and Innovation Committees.
Results: A total of 54 patients were studied. The male to female ratio was 3:1. The mean age was 57.6. The most common indication for tracheostomy was upper airway obstruction secondary due to neoplastic causes in 57% of cases. With 36% of cases being done at ICU and 76 cases in the operating theater.
Wurzburg Road 35, BMC Premises, Post Code: 33102: P. O. Box 1464, Mwanza – Tanzania: Phone: +255 28 298 3384: Fax: +255 28 298 3386: Email: vc@bugando.ac.tz : www.bugando.ac.tz