IN THIS paper we understand "tracheotomy" to mean an operative procedure which opens the trachea across the different layers of the neck midline. The wound heals by secondary intention, and the opening must be maintained by a tracheal tube.
"Tracheostomy" is an operative procedure, and its final result, when the tracheal opening or the tracheal stump is sutured to the skin, provides primary healing and formation of a definitive tracheal fistula.
During the last decade tracheotomy has become of great importance as a preventive or curative procedure in many different clinical situations. This report does not deal with the indications for tracheotomy, which have been discussed by many other authors. We will be strictly limited to a discussion of the primary and late sequelae of the tracheotomy. From 1950-1962 1,850 patients have been operated on at the ENT Clinic of the University of Zurich. The last 400 of these are