Body Of Proof Star Dana Delany Mistakes Horizontal Tracheostomy for Cricothyroidotomy

InsideSurgery.com watched with interest a recent episode of the terrific ABC medical drama Burden of Proof staring Dana Delany as Dr. Megan Hunt, a neurosurgeon turned medical examiner. Although we found the Body of Proof episode much more realistic than most medical television shows, one unconventional medical decision we noted was the script calling for a tracheostomy to be performed to establish an emergency airway in the field. Dana Delany as Dr. Megan Hunt in Body of Proof This is technically not correct as an emergency airway established in the field is always a cricothyroidotomy, not a tracheostomy. No doubt, the writers exercised understandable dramatic license in using the likely more familiar term (to the general public) of tracheostomy. However, there are considerable technical and anatomic differences in the two procedures that should be highlighted to better educate any of the nine million viewers of the Body of  Proof episode who might care to dig deeper into this subject and might consider actually performing this procedure in an emergency. The key anatomic surgical difference between the two procedures lies in the location of the cricothyroid membrane through which a cricothyroidotomy is performed vs. the lower tracheal rings through which a tracheostomy is performed. The cricothyroid membrane is fairly easy to palpate and lies between the two paired cricoid cartilages which are sometimes referred to as the Adam’s apple positioned in the middle of th...
Source: Inside Surgery - Category: Surgery Authors: Tags: Musings Body of Proof cricothyroidotomy Dana Delany Megan Hunt tracheostomy Source Type: blogs