MAJOR CELLULITIS FOLLOWING PERCUTANEOUS TRACHEOSTOMY

Percutaneous tracheostomy, a technique that can be performed at the be dside in the intensive care unit (ICU), is increasingly used for criti cally ill ventilator-dependent patients. Based on many clinical studie s, this procedure appears to be simple, rapid and safer than conventio nal surgical tracheostomy. This technique produces a stoma tissue trac t that fits snugly around the cannula, and this could explain the low incidence of infective complications. However, we report two cases of life-threatening cellulitis, a serious complication that has rarely be en reported previously.