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By Mayo Clinic staffIn most cases, a tracheostomy is temporary, providing an alternative breathing route until other medical issues are resolved. If a person needs to remain connected to a ventilator indefinitely, the tracheostomy is often the best permanent solution.
Your health care team will help you determine when it's appropriate to remove the tracheostomy tube. The hole may heal shut on its own, or it can be closed surgically.
- 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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