Early Tracheostomy in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Patients: A Meta-Analysis and Comparison With Late Tracheostomy

摘要

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Objectives: To elucidate the impact of early tracheostomy on hospitalization outcomes in patients with traumatic brain injury. Data Sources: Lilacs, PubMed, and Cochrane databases were searched. The close-out date was August 8, 2018. Study Selection: Studies written in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese with traumatic brain injury as the base trauma, clearly formulated question, patient’s admission assessment, minimum follow-up during hospital stay, and minimum of two in-hospital outcomes were selected. Retrospective studies, prospective analyses, and case series were included. Studies without full reports or abstract, commentaries, editorials, and reviews were excluded. Data Extraction: The study design, year, patient’s demographics, mean time between admission and tracheostomy, neurologic assessment at admission, confirmed ventilator-assisted pneumonia, median ICU stay, median hospital stay, mortality rates, and ICU and hospital costs were extracted. Data Synthesis: A total of 4,219 studies were retrieved and screened. Eight studies were selected for the systematic review; of these, seven were eligible for the meta-analysis. Comparative analyses were performed between the early tracheostomy and late tracheostomy groups. Mean time for early tracheostomy and late tracheostomy procedures was 5.59 days ( sd , 0.34 d) and 11.8 days ( sd , 0.81 d), respectively. Meta-analysis revealed that early tracheostomy was associated with shorter mechanical ventilation duration (–4.15 [95% CI, –6.30 to –1.99]) as well as ICU (–5.87 d [95% CI, –8.74 to –3.00 d]) and hospital (–6.68 d [95% CI, –8.03 to –5.32 d]) stay durations when compared with late tracheostomy. Early tracheostomy presented less risk difference for ventilator-associated pneumonia (risk difference, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.70–0.88). No statistical difference in mortality was found between the groups. Conclusions: The findings from this meta-analysis suggest that early tracheostomy in severe traumatic brain injury patients contributes to a lower exposure to secondary insults and nosocomial adverse events, increasing the opportunity of patient’s early rehabilitation and discharge.