Iatrogenic tracheal stenosis is a life threatening iatrogenic complication of prolonged endotracheal intubation and tracheostomy in intensive care units (ICUs). It is one of the toughest morbidities in otolaryngology.

This prospective observational study was conducted to detect the factors affecting occurrence of tracheal stenosis in patients subjected to tracheostomy after endotracheal intubation in ICUs.

Sixty eight patients were included in this prospective study. They were admitted to (ICUs) and were subjected to endotracheal intubation, mechanical ventilation and tracheostomy due to prolonged intubation during their stay in (ICUs). The patients were followed up after being discharged for six months to detect incidence and factors affecting occurrence of tracheal stenosis. They were followed up using flexible fiber optic tracheobronchoscopy under local anesthesia, just after weaning from mechanical ventilation three and six months later.

Of the studied patients, 50 patients had no tracheal stenosis until the end of follow up period (without tracheal stenosis (WTS) group) while, 18 patients had tracheal stenosis (TS group). The mean duration of mechanical ventilation in WTS group (12.1 ± 7.6 days) was statistically shorter than that of TS groups (16.6 ± 10.4 days) (P = 0.048). Tracheostomy stoma wound sepsis was recorded in 4 patients in TS group and in 2 patients in WTS group.

The main predisposing factors for post intubation and post tracheostomy tracheal stenosis are tracheostomy stomal wound sepsis and prolonged duration of mechanical ventilation. In contrary, tracheal cartilage injury during tracheostomy, age, sex and reason for mechanical ventilation was found to have no role in occurrence of tracheal stenosis.