Results
cartilage rigidity, death, cartilage injury, tracheal injuries
We carried out PDTs in 150 cadavers (69 female and 81 male) with different types of dilatational techniques in the period of 2015 March 01–2017 February 24. All data is available in According to the time elapsed since death we divided the patients into two groups, an early post-mortem (less than 72 h passed since death), and a late post-mortem group (81 vs. 65 subjects). Our preliminary assumption was that cartilage rigidity varies with the time elapsed after death thus there would be an increase in cartilage injury in the group of cadavers in whom PDT was carried out more than 72 h after death (late post-mortem group). Relationship between cartilage injury and study variables.Characteristic of tracheal injuries during autopsies As the next step we compared the three techniques applied according to two aspects, whether the occurrence of cartilage injury depends on the dilatational techniques and whether there is any difference in the position of tracheostomy. For the latter we accepted the tracheostomy at “proper position” if the tube was inserted between the 1st and 2nd or between the 2nd and 3rd cartilages according to the standards. Raw data are shown in Relationship between cartilage injury or tracheostomy tube position and the method of intervention.Statistical analysis revealed that the method of intervention was significantly associated with cartilage injury, when comparing either standard Griggs’ with Single Dilator (Statistical analysis of the methods of intervention according to cartilage injury and tracheostomy tube position.