Kumarasinghe D, Wong E, Duvnjak M, et al. - As both hospitalized patients and those in the community may experience significant morbidity and mortality in correlation with a long-term tracheostomy tube placement, researchers here sought to determine the rates of microbial colonization and infection of tracheostomy tubes. Sixty-five patients were enrolled from both inpatient and outpatient settings and culture swabs were collected from the cuff/outer-cannula and inner-cannula during their routine tracheostomy changes. Analysis revealed increased colonization in correlation with inpatients, increasing acuity of care, cuffed tracheostomy tubes; diabetics; and males.