Surgically closing stoma

#1 09-20-2006, 01:19 PM

Our daughter was successfully decannulated on the 24th of July. Her stoma has shrunk, but looks like it won't close completely. We live in the UK where the common practice is to wait 9 months before stitching the stoma closed. Can people please advise on their experiences? We don't want to rush anything and after a tracheostomy it isn't a big deal, but should we push to have it closed now?

Our daughter was born with BVCP and her vocal cords recovered naturally after 7 months. We got very lucky!

Whitney · #2 09-20-2006, 09:10 PM

Our ENT said he'd close it after a year, but it ended up being 16 months. Our pulm had wanted it closed within 3 months of decann...

I think it varies some, but 9 months wouldn't sound unreasonable compared to what we were told.

sandra · #3 09-20-2006, 10:15 PM

Our ENT only waited 4 months. He wanted it done before RSV season. I actually asked him about waiting to spring, because we had had enough surgeries for a while. He looked at me like I was crazy and said that he would prefer to go ahead and get it done, so we went ahead. It was very easy on Brian. He didn't even need pain meds afterwards.