3.1 Patient demographics
Table 1 lists the demographic data of the enrolled patients. We identified 288 eligible patients. Their median age at the time of tracheostomy was 64 years (interquartile range, 48‒73 years), and there was a male predominance (64%). The most common primary diseases were cerebrovascular and neuromuscular diseases (26%). The primary reasons for tracheostomy were long-term intubation (72%), upper-airway narrowing (21%), and difficult intubation (6%). Among them, 39 patients (14%) underwent emergency ST. ST was performed under local anesthesia in 57 patients (19%). ST under CAT was performed in 40 patients (14%).