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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So one of our subscribers asked, is ventilation necessary after tracheostomy?

So the answer is that it depends. So if you look at patients in intensive care that go into an induced coma need to be ventilated with a breathing tube or an endotracheal tube through their mouth, and they can’t be weaned off the ventilator and then eventually end up with a tracheostomy, that’s when ventilation is necessary to begin with, but I have to stress that it’s necessary to begin with.

So one of the issues and challenges with a breathing tube or an endotracheal tube and ventilation is, at most, patients need to be in an induced coma and on sedation because a breathing tube or an endotracheal tube is just very uncomfortable because it sits in the back of the throat.

So when the change to a tracheostomy is made, then sedation can be switched off. And patients can come out of an induced coma. Once patients are out of an induced coma, and they’re waking up, it’s much more likely for them to do more and more breathing by themselves, which then makes it much more likely for patients to come off the ventilator and then ventilation is not necessary.

However, in practice, it’s often like a step by step process. So it’s not as simple as you know, you’re taking a patient off a breathing tube, and you put in a tracheostomy and you stop ventilation that does happen every now and then it does happen on some occasions, but most of the time, it’s a gradual process where you can wean somebody off the ventilator and the tracheostomy once they’re out of the induced coma and the sedation is off because the tracheostomy sits in the neck and it’s not painful.

So I hope that answers your question. And also if your loved one does have problems in coming off the ventilator, whilst they’re having a tracheostomy and they’re staying in ICU or in a long term acute care facility or in rehabilitation, please check out intensivecareathome.com because intensive careathome.com, we can take patients home on a ventilator with a tracheostomy and can continue treatment at home.

So that’s my tip for today.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.