Forty per cent of critically ill children whose parents or other caregivers declined tracheostomies died within 24 months, and half of all deaths occurred within six weeks, according to US researchers.
The findings, from UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center Dallas, have been published in The Laryngoscope and could help physicians counsel parents who must decide whether their child will receive a tracheostomy, a decision with significant emotional, social, and economic impacts for families, the authors say.