COVIDTrach; the outcomes of mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients undergoing tracheostomy in the UK: Interim Report
Authors:   COVIDTrach collaborative, Hamilton NJI , Jacob T , Schilder AGM , Arora A , George MM , Green F , Jackson E , Goulder J , Kumar N , Schilling C , Laha S , Ahmad I , McGrath B , Birchall MA , Tolley NS , Sandhu G , Tatla T , Sharma N , Stimpson P , Andrews P , Surda P , Takhar A , Xie C , Bhargava E Kamta , Tornari C , Verkerk M , Kelly M , Collins J , Pennell D , Amin N , Ranford D , Al-Yaghchi C , Ritchie L , Jaafar M , Mistry R , Rouhani M , Ashcroft M , Cereceda-Monteoliva N , Holroyd A , Ng J , Ghufoor K , Warner E , Drewery H , Hadley J , Bhandari R , Bhatti N , O’mahoney H , Shepherd S , Wilson H , Griffiths M , Rovira A , Munroe-Gray T , Dawson D , Sethukumar P , Ekpemi I , Bance RR , Karamali K , Glibbery N , Walker C , Valchanov K , Bates L , Saha S , Smart C , Magos T , Loizidou A , Lee M , Allin D , Kumar R , Cosway B , Glore R , Omakobia E , Tattersall G , Hill B , Udall W , Khwaja S , Anmolsingh R , Smyth C , Al-Dulaimy B , Kapoor K , Sirajuddin S , Fang S , Van-Damme F , Bondin D , Thorley D , Nair D , Kandiah S , Husband C Davies , Barrera-Groba C , Seymour N , Mahalingam S , Leakey E , Okhovat S , Buglass H , Tam E , Sheikh U , Suresh S , Westwood J , Smith J , Celinski M , Shahidi S , Jolly K , Osborne M , Fussey J , Kirkland P , Staufenberg J , Vasanthan R , Ladan S , Paul P , Tsirevelou P , Ratnam V , Anwar M , Pericleous A , Bates J , Moorthy R , Bothma P , Meghji S , Judd O , Ali T , Stubington T , Kumar A , Parker W , Davis T , Burgess A , Tsagkovits A , Winter S , Hunt T , Vijendren A , Venkatachalam V , Lechner M , Chandrasekharan D , Arya A , Brown R , Srinivasan V , Junaid M , Temple R , Pinto R , Nagalotimath U , Sheikh R , Cook C , Lunn J , Ranganathan B , Mani N , Saeed H , Linton S , Stewart R , Nakagawa S , Turner H , Whiteside J , Whiteside J , Cooper F , Collier J , Ward P , Lockie C , Lignos L , Courtney A , Browning T , Mulla O , Stobbs N , Alegria A , Starnes S , Thompson A , Whittaker J , Hassan A , Cameron M , Walker A , Leach L , Gill P , McCadden L , Baker S , Sanyal S , Wilkinson S , Siau R , Vallabh N , Riley Emma , Abou-Foul Ahmad K. 
Published: May 2020

COVIDTrach is a UK multidisciplinary collaborative project that aims to evaluate the outcomes of tracheostomy in COVID-19 patients. An invitation to participate in an online survey tool (REDCap) was disseminated to all UK NHS departments involved in tracheostomy in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients. Fifty-two percent (n=219/465) of patients who had undergone tracheostomy and were still alive, had been successfully weaned from mechanical ventilation at the point of completing the survey. The all cause in-hospital mortality following tracheostomy was 12% (n=62/530), with 3% of these (n=2/62) due to tracheostomy related complications and the remaining deaths due to COVID-19 related complications. Amongst 400 cases submitting data two weeks after the tracheostomy, no instance of COVID-19 infection amongst operators was recorded. This interim report highlights early outcomes following tracheostomy in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients. Future reporting from COVIDTrach will include more detailed analysis at later timepoints using comparator groups in order to provide a more comprehensive assessment of tracheostomy in COVID-19.