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Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
Tracheostomy (tray-key-OS-tuh-me) is a surgically created hole through the front of your neck and into your windpipe (trachea). The term for the surgical procedure to create this opening is tracheotomy.
A tracheostomy provides an air passage to help you breathe when the usual route for breathing is somehow obstructed or impaired. A tracheostomy is often needed when health problems require long-term use of a machine (ventilator) to help you breathe. In rare cases, an emergency tracheotomy is performed when your airway is suddenly blocked, such as after a traumatic injury to your face or neck.
When a tracheostomy is no longer needed, it's allowed to heal shut or is surgically closed. For some people, a tracheostomy is permanent.
- Tracheostomy. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/trach/trach_all.html. Accessed Sept. 22, 2010.
- Weissler M, et al. Tracheotomy and intubation. In: Bailey B, et al., eds. Head & Neck Surgery — Otolaryngology. 4th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2006. http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com/sp-3.2.2b/ovidweb.cgi. Accessed Sept. 21, 2010.
- Maragos NE (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Oct. 13, 2010.
- Custalow CB. Emergent surgical cricothyroidotomy (cricothyrotomy). http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Sept. 21, 2010.
- Speech for people with tracheostomies or ventilators. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. http://www.asha.org/public/speech/disorders/tracheostomies.htm. Accessed Sept. 11, 2010.
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