Preferable Alternative To Tracheotomy

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30760, 26 May 1965, Page 20

Preferable Alternative To Tracheotomy

Making a hole in the windpipe (tracheotomy) in cases of severe protracted respiratory obstruction may be resorted to far less frequently in Christchurch as the result of a paper presented at a medical conference last week in Sydney, Dr. W. J. Pryor, senior anaesthetist to the North Canterbury Hospital Board, said yesterday. Tracheotomy was performed more usually on children, said Dr. Pryor. It was not considered, very desirable because of the risk of complications and because of the ugly scar often left on the patient’s neck, but until now it had been thought a preferable alternative to a second method of getting round the blockage—by introducing a plastic tube through the nose. In Christchurch it was not the general practice to leave such a tube in place for longer than 24 hours. Plastic Tubes

At the general scientific meeting of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and its Faculty of Anaesthetists, however, which Dr. Pryor attended in Sydney last week, Dr. T. H. Allen, of Adelaide, described cases in which plastic respiration tubes had been left in place for as long as a fortnight without ill effect. “In view of this, I am sure we shall have to take another look at our practice in Christchurch,” Dr. Pryor commented.

Among other new discoveries described at the meeting were findings reported by Dr. J. F. Mainland, of Melbourne, who said records of the electrical activity of the muscles

of the diaphragm for 10 days after abdominal surgery showed that these muscles were in tonic spasm for many days after the operation. This, said Dr. Mainland, could well interfere with breathing and might account for the frequency with which respiratory complications occurred after this type of surgery.