Early Versus Late Tracheostomy in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury: A US Nationwide Analysis.

One of the most critical issues in patients suffering from traumatic brain injury (TBI) is protecting the airway and attempting to keep a secure airway. It is evident that tracheostomy in patients with TBI after 7–14 days can have favorable outcomes if the patient cannot be extubated; however, some clinicians have recommended early tracheostomy before 7 days. A retrospective cohort of inpatient study participants was queried from the National Inpatient Sample to include patients with TBI between 2016 and 2020 undergoing tracheostomy and outcomes between the two groups of early tracheostomy (ET) (< 7 days from admission) and late tracheostomy (LT) (≥ 7 days from admission) were compared. We reviewed 219,005 patients with TBI, out of whom 3.04