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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.
So many families in intensive care come to us and they want to know when to do a tracheostomy if their loved one is on a ventilator with a breathing tube or an endotracheal tube in their mouth.
So a question that comes up then inevitably is how does a tracheostomy help with coming out of sedation and an induced coma. So that’s my tip for today. How does a tracheostomy help with coming out of sedation or an induced coma?
So one of the indications for a tracheostomy is usually the inability for your loved one to be weaned off the ventilator and the breathing tube or the endotracheal tube. In order for your loved one to be able to tolerate mechanical ventilation and the breathing tube in the mouth and in the back of the throat is to put your loved one in an induced coma because it’s so uncomfortable and painful having a breathing tube in the throat.
So therefore, an induced coma and sedation is necessary. With an induced coma and sedation come undesired side effects such as muscle weakness, deconditioning, ICU, psychosis, often hypotension, low blood pressure that requires inotropes or vasopressors, which is considered life support, kidney failure, ventilator associated pneumonia and the list is almost endless in terms of side effects.
So there comes a point where your loved one that can be extubated, which is the removal of the breathing tube or the endotracheal tube, or there comes a point where your loved one might need a tracheostomy and that will actually help to get your loved one out of the induced coma and the sedation, because a tracheostomy is almost painless.
Patients with a tracheostomy don’t complain about pain, which means, or pain or discomfort because of the tracheostomy. So that means, the minute your loved one can have a tracheostomy, sedation can be switched off and your loved one can be woken up from an induced coma, and that is how a tracheostomy helps with coming out of sedation or an induced coma.
Now, that’s not the full story. There is much more to it for example, you know, you need to work out what other next steps if your loved one has a tracheostomy, where do they go? Can they stay in ICU? Do they need to go to LTAC if you’re in America or can they go home with intensive care at home, for example? So you really need to think through if this is the right thing for your loved one or not and we can help you with the finding or with making the right decisions here at intensivecarehotline.com.
So if you need help with a situation like that or with any other situation in intensive care, please contact us at intensivecarehotline.com. There are phone numbers on the website or on the top of the website where you can contact us or just simply send us an email to [email protected] or leave a comment below this video and I’ll respond to your comments.
Take care for now. This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.