Factors Affecting Wound Healing after Decannulation of Tracheostomy Tube

Objective: To see the factors affecting wound recovery of the patients who decannulated tracheostomy tube and to provide an index to guide proper time for stomaplasty. Method: The subjects were 41 patients having received tracheostomy tube decannulation. The medical records of the subject patients were investigated retrospectively. Among the group with natural sealing off, the factors affecting spontaneous closure were compared in terms of the duration of tracheostomy tube cannulation, age, hemoglobin, protein, albumin, peak flow meter, mini-mental status examination (MMSE), and oral feeding. Results: The group with natural sealing off had 142 days as the average period of tracheostomy tube cannulation while the group without showed 652.33 days. The duration of tracheostomy was statistically significant in linear regression analysis. In addition, the groups with oral feeding and without oral feeding were significantly different from each other (p<0.05). Conclusion: Significant factors affecting wound recovery after tracheostomy tube decannulation were the duration from tracheostomy operation to tracheostomy tube decannulation and oral feeding.