Risk factors for acute unplanned tracheostomy during panendoscopy in HNSCC patients

Abstract

Background Despite of careful pre-operative risk evaluation some patients require an acute unplanned tracheostomy during panendoscopy. Methods Risk factors of patients requiring an unplanned tracheostomy during panendoscopy (n = 32) were compared to a control group with panendoscopy without tracheostomy (n = 180). Results 2131 panendoscopies for Head and Neck squamous cell carcinoma were performed at our Department between 2000 and 2014. Unplanned tracheostomies were necessary in 1.6% of all panendoscopies. Patients with laryngeal cancer (p = 0.001) or abnormal activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) (p = 0.03) had a statistically significant higher risk of unplanned tracheostomy. Regression analysis showed that patients with advanced laryngeal cancer had an almost 6 times higher risk for tracheostomy than patients with early stage oropharyngeal cancer. Conclusions We identified abnormal aPTT and laryngeal carcinoma as significant predictors for unplanned tracheostomy during panendoscopy. The results of our study could improve preoperative risk evaluation in HNSCC patients.