tracheotomy and laryngeal diversion

[westjlittle]

I am getting close to needing a vent. I have read several good threads on vent/not vent but no one has mentioned laryngeal diversion.

I ran across this article from MDA:It discusses laryngeal diversion.

http://www.als-mda.org/publications/als/als13_5.html#aspiration

I was wondering if anyone has had this procedure? It seems like a very logical thing to do. It would avoid one source of bacteria and eliminate saliva aspiration. I suppose you could drink/eat safely with this also.

I can't eat or talk now so that is not issue. it may be for other PALS.

Opinions?

jim

 

[joelc]

I don't know what to think as I don't have aspiration problems and have a regular tracheostomy and a cuffless tube.

But I can see that this procedure would definitely be a good thing for anyone who has aspiration problems.

I have never heard of it before, thanks for bringing it to our attention.

 

[westjlittle]

I think the question boils down to "Can you avoid pneumonia better with operation?" or maybe " What % of pneumonia cases are due to mouth bacteria/aspiration?

Jim

 

[joelc]

I don't have any statistics, but I would guess that the majority of pneumonia cases are because of aspiration.

This would certainly prevent that problem.

But I do see one potential problem. As one who has a trache I get a lot of secretions (at times) that get past the bottom of the tube. Meaning they come higher where suctioning does not get them. When this happens I can usually cough them past, even with my weak diaphragm. With this procedure you would have to take the trache tube out to get them.

This might not be too different though as we sometimes take my tube out to get them anyway. It is no big deal to do this.