Tracheotomy Side Effects and Warnings

Possible Complications

If you are planning to have a tracheotomy, your doctor will review a list of possible complications, which may include:

• Bleeding
• Infection
• Damage to the vocal cords, vocal cord nerves, or esophagus
• Damage to the lungs
• Difficulty swallowing
• Low blood pressure
• Tracheostomy tube displacement or damage
• Scarring at the site of operation leading to closure of the tracheostomy

Some factors that may increase the risk of complications include:

• Age: infants and elderly adults
• Obesity
• Smoking
• Poor nutrition
• Recent illness, especially an upper-respiratory infection
• Alcoholism
• Long-term illnesses
• Use of certain prescription and nonprescription drugs

Call Your Doctor

After you leave the hospital, contact your doctor if any of the following occurs:

• Signs of infection, including cough, excessive foul-smelling mucous, fever, and chills
• Redness, swelling, increasing pain, excessive bleeding, or any discharge from the incision site
• Nausea and/or vomiting that you cannot control with the medicines you were given after surgery, or which persist for more than two days after discharge from the hospital
• Pain that you cannot control with the medicines you have been given
• Cough, shortness of breath, or chest pain
• New, unexplained symptoms
• Tracheostomy tube falls out and you cannot replace it—Call 911.

In case of an emergency, CALL 911.