Early complications of tracheostomy performed in the operating room.

Tracheostomy is one of the oldest operations in medicine. The intraoperative and postoperative complications associated with this procedure are well established. Recently, percutaneous and open bedside tracheostomy in the intensive care unit has been reported as an alternative to tracheostomies performed in the operating room. We investigated the early complications in 70 consecutive tracheostomies performed in the operating room in Bnai Zion Medical Center in Haifa, Israel. The study revealed no complications related to patient transportation to and from the operating room. The complication rate of standard surgical tracheostomy performed in the operating room was very low.