ABSTRACT

Tracheostomies have been performed for more than 3500 years, and one of its earliest references appears in the Rig Veda, the sacred book of Hindu medicine, written around 2000 b.c. At that time and for many centuries after, tracheostomy was used as a respiratory rescue procedure in case of direct cervical wounds and inhaled foreign bodies, and its first long-term use [following its use in emergency for acute respiratory failure (ARF)] was for croup management, as proposed by Home in the eighteenth century (1). After the polio era in the twentieth century, when the iron lung made survival possible for thousands of patients during and after the acute phase of the illness with lifelong respiratory support compatible with home management (1), the 1950s marked a period of rapid progress in ventilator support technology, with the development of endotracheal ventilation and tracheostomy and improved survival after ARF (2).