3. Results
There were 51 eligible patients, of whom 13 and 38 were included in the open- and closed-PICU groups, respectively (Table 1). All patients underwent slide tracheoplasty. The median age and weight of the patients were 8 months (range: 1–118 months) and 6.5 kg (range: 2.3–20.8 kg), respectively. Thirty-five of the 39 patients with comorbid cardiac conditions underwent simultaneous cardiovascular surgery. Pulmonary artery slings were the most common comorbid condition (n = 24, 47%). None of the patients underwent preoperative tracheostomy. Eleven patients (21%) remained on preoperative mechanical ventilatory management because of difficulty in extubation due to tracheal stenosis.
More patients in the open-PICU group were intubated until surgery (6 [46%] vs. 5 [13%]; P =0.02). There were no significant differences in other patient background characteristics or surgery-related factors. The duration of administration of muscle relaxants was shorter in the closed-PICU group (4 [3–10] vs. 5 [4–19] days; P < 0.001). Moreover, enteral feeding was started earlier in the closed-PICU group (1 [0–3] vs. 7 [1–24] postoperative days; P < 0.001, Table 1).
The outcomes evaluated are shown in Table 2. Anastomotic leakage (1 [8%] vs. 0 [0%]; P = 0.25) and tracheostomy procedures (2 [15%] vs. 4 [11%]; P = 0.62) were not significantly different between the two groups. However, the length of postoperative PICU stay was significantly shorter (16 [9–77] vs. 36 [16–183] days; P = 0.002) and the median number of 28-day VFD (21 [0–23] vs. 20 [0–22] days; P = 0.04) was significantly greater in the closed-PICU group. The number of CPR events (2 [15%] vs. 3 [8%]; P = 0.59 and mortality (1 [8%] vs. 0 [0%]; P = 0.25) did not differ significantly between the two groups.