A Retrospective Observational Case Study to Assess the Safety and Feasibility of Percutaneous Dilatational Tracheostomy Performed by Trainees

Percutaneous dilatational tracheostomy is a procedure commonly performed in patients requiring prolonged ventilatory care in intensive care unit. In this procedure, a tracheal tube is inserted in the anterior tracheal wall between the second and third tracheal rings using seldinger’s approach. There have been many studies that proved the efficiency and associated complications of PDT, but not many have compared the safety and feasibility of PDT performed by trainees and intensivist. The aim of this study is to assess the safety and feasibility of PDT by trainees. The primary objective is to compare the duration of performing PDT by trainees and intensivists and complications associated with it. This is a retrospective observational study done on patients who underwent PDT between January 2020 till June 2020 in our institute. The data collected retrospectively were categorized into two groups. One group consisted of PDT done by trainees and the other group where PDT was performed by intensivists. On analysis, the results showed a significant difference, in the duration of performing PDT between trainees and intensivist, with p = 0.001. However, there weren’t any differences in other study parameters like demographics and complication rate. It is thus, concluded that PDT performed by trainees although, a little time consuming than those performed by intensivists, was evaluated to be safe and feasible without any complications.