The invention of positive-pressure ventilators and the growth of ICUs have improved our ability to keep critically ill and mechanically ventilated patients alive longer, and as a result, prolonged ventilatory assistance has become more and more common. In recent years, there has been a shift away from translaryngeal intubation in favour of tracheostomy for better long-term airway access in patients who require prolonged ventilatory support. This well illustrated, practical text provides the newcomer to percutaneous tracheostomy with a perfect introduction to this increasingly widely used technique. It provides an overview of the history of the technique, the basic anatomy of relevance to the user, and the indications and contraindications for its use, and goes on to describe the key advantages of the technique over other methods, which kits are currently available for use (and their relative merits), equipment and aids for percutaneous tracheostomy, and the anaesthetic techniques involved.
