This thing was asked about in Question 6.3 from the second paper of 2009.
Features of the flanged tracheostomy tube:
- The tube has a curved portion and a straight portion, which allows the flange to be adjusted to the appropriate pretracheal tissue thickness.
- Adjustable flange allows adjustment of tracheostomy length to any length of patient neck
- It is suitable for patients with up to 50mm of pretracheal tissue
- Soft tube allows a degree of flexibility, especially when warmed to body temperature.
- The tubing is reinforced, which prevents kinking
- The material is MRI-friendly
- High volume, low pressure cuff
- Radio-opaque tubing allows visualisation of position on CXR (but there is no "blue line" like with ETTs
- Some of these are designed for percutaneous insertion