Supplement Table 1. Clinical characteristics and hospital course for ICU patients who required mechanical ventilation at a referral hospital in Malawi, stratified by the provision of tracheostomy and excluding those with severe head injury
Variable Received
Tracheostom y
Did not receive Tracheostomy
p-value
Total ICU Admissions, n (%)
16 (4) 338 (96) 357
Age (years), mean (SD)
29 (17) 30 (17) 0.776
Sex, n (%)
Female Male
9 (56) 7 (44)
208 (62) 130 (38)
0.560 Hospital location before
ICU Admission, n (%) Emergency/Ward*
HDU Operating Room
4 (25) 5 (31) 7 (44)
61 (18) 78 (23) 176 (52)
0.674
ICU Admitting Service, n (%)
General Surgery OBGyn Medicine/Pediatrics
6 (38) 5 (31) 5 (31)
154 (46) 89 (26) 83 (25)
0.743
Recent Surgery in Hospital Course, n (%)
10 (63) 231 (68) 0.624
Total MEWS at ICU
Admission, mean (SD) 6 (3) 7 (5) 0.244
Length of Mechanical Ventilation (days), mean (SD)
16 (12) 3 (3) <0.001
Length of Mechanical Ventilation before Tracheostomy (days), mean (SD)
9 (6) NA NA
Length of Stay in ICU (days), mean (SD)
18 (13) 3 (4) <0.001
ICU Mortality, n (%) 8 (50) 189 (56) 0.642
Hospital Mortality, n (%)
12 (75) 205 (60) 0.250
ICU: Intensive Care Unit; SD: standard deviation; HDU: high-dependency unit; OBGyn: Obstetrics and Gynecology; MEWS: Modified Early Warning Score
*Emergency Room includes Transfers from Outside Hospitals
