Objective: To evaluate the effect of a specialized multidisciplinary tracheostomy team on outcome of patients with severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI).
Design: Retrospective study with historical controls.
Participants: Twenty-seven patients with sTBI tracheostomized before implementation of the tracheostomy team approach and 34 patients followed by the team.
Setting: A regional level 1 tertiary care trauma center, McGill University Health Centre-Montreal General Hospital.
Main outcome measures: Time to decannulation, length of stay (LOS), Passy-Muir speaking valve use, and extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS-E) scores given at acute care discharge.
Results: The groups were similar for injury severity, age, and premorbid health conditions. Postteam patients had a significantly shorter LOS (P = .025) and more of them used Passy-Muir speaking valves (P = .004). Furthermore, there was a trend toward decreased time to decannulation in the postteam group. GOS-E scores did not differ significantly between groups (P > .05).
Conclusion: Implementation of the tracheostomy team appears to have had positive clinical benefits for this population.