Percutaneous tracheotomy in children.

We present three cases of the Fantoni percutaneous translaryngeal tracheostomy (TLT) performed under direct rigid bronchoscopy. The surgeries were performed in the near-drowned 5-year-old boy, and 15-year-old lupus erythematosus girl with a permanent brain damage resulted from a cardiac arrest, 11-year-old cardiac girl with postintubation laryngeal stenosis. In the first two cases, the procedure went uneventful; in one case the tube was accidentally pulled out during the rotation phase and surgical tracheostomy was performed. We describe the TLT procedure in details, calling special attention at the fact that the TLT is especially suitable for children below 10 years of age and is associated with very few complications.