Microbial Profile in Tracheostomy Tube and Tracheostoma: A Prospective Study

Tracheostomy a lifesaving procedure done more frequently for critically ill patients for mechanical ventilation, bronchopulmonary toileting, reduce pulmonary effort has variable complications to itself. The common being secondary infection with bacteria and fungi, which in turn lead to granulation formation in stoma and on peristomal region. This prospective study was done with an aim to study, correlate and compare the microbial organisms grown in culture from tracheostomy tubes and peristomal granulation in ventilated and non-ventilated patient. We studied 210 patients out of them 100 patients satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria and they were included in this study. We found 89 patients staining positive for bacterial cultures and 8 patients staining positive for fungi and the granulation increases as the time taken for tube change is more than 1 month. So, we concluded it is ideal to change tracheostomy tube within a month duration and most common organism complicating infection in stoma as Pseudomonas aeruginosa followed by coagulase negative Staphylococcus aureus.