Planned tracheotomy in children: indications, contraindications and preoperative assessment.

Pediatric tracheotomy became established as a valuable procedure when Galloway reported its successful use to assist breathing in polio patients during the polio pandemic of the 1950s. Examination of the history of the procedure from its inception to the present day reveals a significant change in the indications for its execution. This is due to the achievements of neonatal and pediatric intensive care medicine, which in recent years have been able to shift the emphasis from performing it as an emergency procedure to solve an acute asphyxia problem to performing it in children, representing a complex group of patients with permanent dependence on tracheostomy and medical technologies for long-term survival related to it.