TY - JOUR T1 - Benefits of early tracheotomy: a meta-analysis based on six observational studies JF - Respiratory Care DO - 10.4187/respcare.02413 SP - respcare.02413 AU - Liang Shan AU - Panpan Hao AU - Feng Xu AU - Yuguo Chen Y1 - 2013/05/07 UR - http://rc.rcjournal.com/content/early/2013/05/07/respcare.02413.abstract N2 - Background: Whether early tracheotomy can improve the clinical outcomes of critically ill patients remains controversial. The current study aimed to discuss the potential benefits of early tracheotomy compared to late tracheotomy with meta-analysis of observational researches. Methods: An electronic search (up to February 28, 2013) was conducted by a uniform requirement and then clinical data satisfying the predefined inclusion criteria were extracted. Results: Data from a total of 2037 subjects were included from six observational retrospective studies. Meta-analysis suggested that early-tracheotomy was associated with significant reductions in mortality (odds ratio [OR], 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.62-0.96), duration of mechanical ventilation(MV) (mean difference: -10.04; 95% CI [-15.15, -4.92]), length of intensive care unit (ICU) stay (mean difference: -8.80; 95% CI [-9.71, -7.89]) and length of hospital stay (mean difference: -12.18; 95% CI [-18.25, -6.11]). However, as compared with late-tracheotomy, early-tracheotomy did not reduce the incidence of ventilation associated pneumonia. Conclusion: Our meta-analysis of retrospective observational studies suggests that early tracheotomy performed between days 3 and 7 after intubation had some advantages including decreased mortality, reduced length of ICU stay, length of hospital stay and MV duration in ICU patients. ER -