[Lethal vascular erosion after percutaneous dilatation tracheostomy].

We report on a patient who underwent dilatational tracheostomy (Ciaglia technique) because of ARDS. 29 days after the procedure she died of hemorrhage from an arrosion of the bracheocephalic trunk, caused by the cuff of the tracheal cannula. This complication has, so far, been reported only after surgical tracheostomy.

[Pediatric polytrauma. A retrospective comparison between pediatric, adolescent and adult polytrauma].

Numerous epidemiological studies about multiple trauma patients do not include an analysis of patients under the age of 18. To study this, the data of 682 patients with multiple traumata, treated between 1981 and 1991 at Hannover Medical School, Germany, were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into four age-related groups: preschool age (< 6 years), school age (< 13 years), teenagers (< 18 years) and adults (> or = 18 years).