Tracheostomy

Nursing
April 8, 2012

Tracheostomy

What is a tracheostomy? “A tracheostomy (TRA-ke-OS-to-me) is a surgically made hole that goes through the front of your neck and into your trachea (TRA-ke-ah), or windpipe”. What is a tracheostomy done for? Well, the hole is made to help you breathe. To understand how a tracheostomy works, it helps to understand how your airways work. “The airways carry oxygen to your lungs. They also carry carbon dioxide, a waste gas, out of your lungs”. This system is called your respiratory system. The airways include your nose and linked air passages, (called nasal cavities), mouth, larynx or voice box, trachea or windpipe, and tubes called bronchial tubes or bronchi, and their branches.
Being an elderly person and having a tracheostomy can be very difficult. All people reach a physiological peak at age 19. Muscle strength and endurance peak around this time or soon afterwards. After this we lose 1 to 3% of our strength per year. An elderly person needs about 1 to 3 days to adapt to breathing through a tracheostomy tube. It will take some time to learn how to communicate with others. At first, it may be impossible for the patient to talk or make sounds. There are many risks that may occur that may be a serious to an elderly person such as problems breathing, reactions to medications, including heart attack and stroke, bleeding, infection, nerve injury, including paralysis, damage to the thyroid gland, puncture of the lung and lung collapse and scar tissue in the trachea that causes pain or trouble breathing.
According to 2004 statistics there may be as many 6.5 million people in the U.S. alone living with tracheostomies and experts believe this number will increase significantly as 88.5 million baby boomers reach age 65 by 2050. Some estimates indicate as many as half will face respiratory problems, resulting in many needing tracheostomies.
A patient facing tracheostomy is not really hard to handle. As a nurse assistant Provide...