Literature Review and Evidence Collection
A literature review was performed by one author, searching for all published English-language literature reporting on clinical practice guidelines pertaining to tracheostomy in the context of COVID-19. A search strategy was employed with the following search strings: “covid OR covid-19 OR coronavirus” with “tracheostomy OR tracheotomy OR tracheostomy change” in the last 5 years. Grey literature (literature that is not commercially published) was identified by searching the websites of governmental health agencies, professional associations, and other medical societies. Google search engine was used to search for additional information. These searches were supplemented by references of relevant individual articles. Results were limited to articles in the English language. After the completed search, a total list of records was obtained, and duplicates removed. A final list of full text articles was then compiled, and one author independently screened each article.