Can't get the cuff tight

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Inventor

Distinguished member
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
204
Reason
PALS
Diagnosis
12/2012
Country
FI
State
Southern Finland
City
Espoo
Three months since tracheostomy and I have a constant problem with the cuff letting air past so that my throat is gurgling and the respirator beeping high mvi. The only way to make it tight is overinflation to the order of 50 mbar which is harmful to the tissue inside the trachea. I had the cannula replaced two days ago but the problem remains. Any idea what could be done?
 
Inventor - you may need a different size of trach, either larger size or longer. We just upsized my husbands in Aug and that helped some. The other could be positioning. Try moving your trach right or left. Also, play with how the tubing is directed, that can move the trach slightly and cause that issue. If you can't fix it with repositioning of either the trach or the tubing, I would speak with your Dr.

Hugs,

Sue
 
Another possibility is the cuff may not be positioned properly in the trachea, this happened a few times with my husband. We would take all the air out of the cuff, make sure the trach tube was in straight, make sure the trach collar was tight, inflate cuff slowly until we didn't hear any sound. The amount of air/ water should be in the recommended range if this was the cause of the air leak, keeping the trach collar tight was key to preventing this.
 
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