Table 1.

Baseline Characteristics of Patients with Stroke and Decompressive Craniectomy, Stratified by Whether Tracheostomy Was Performed^a.

Characteristics	Overall	Tracheostomy	No Tracheostomy	P value
Age, mean (95% CI), y	53 (52–55)	53 (50–56)	54 (52–55)	0.87
Female	40 (34–45)	40 (30–51)	39 (32–46)	0.85
Race/ethnicity				0.84
White	38 (31–46)	37 (26–47)	39 (30–48)
Black	18 (13–24)	21 (12–30)	17 (11–23)
Hispanic	11 (6–15)	12 (5–19)	10 (4–16)
Asian	5 (2–7)	5 (1–10)	4 (1–8)
Other	28 (20–37)	25 (15–35)	30 (20–40)
Payment method				0.38
Medicare	23 (18–29)	25 (16–34)	22 (16–29)
Medicaid	21 (16–27)	27 (17–37)	19 (13–24)
Private insurance	45 (38–51)	39 (29–50)	47 (39–55)
Other	11 (6–15)	9 (1–16)	12 (7–17)
Elixhauser comorbidity score, mean (95% CI)	3.3 (3.0–3.5)	3.5 (3.1–3.9)	3.2 (2.9–3.4)	0.13
Comorbidities
CHD	18 (14–22)	15 (8–22)	19 (14–25)	0.40
CHF	11 (7–15)	12 (5–20)	10 (5–15)	0.55
DVT	17 (12–22)	21 (12–31)	15 (8–21)	0.24
Renal insufficiency	4 (2–7)	5 (0–10)	4 (1–7)	0.72
COPD	5 (2–7)	6 (1–11)	5 (1–8)	0.72
Atrial fibrillation	21 (16–26)	21 (13–29)	21 (15–27)	0.96
Pneumonia	22 (17–26)	37 (27–46)	15 (10–19)	<0.001
Sepsis	6 (3–9)	9 (1–16)	5 (2–8)	0.34
Median household income by zip code				0.66
Quartile 1 (lowest)	30 (23–36)	32 (20–43)	28 (21–36)
Quartile 2	22 (16–27)	22 (13–31)	21 (15–28)
Quartile 3	27 (21–34)	23 (12–33)	30 (23–37)
Quartile 4	21 (16–27)	24 (15–33)	20 (14–27)
Hospital bed size				0.41
Tertile 1 (smallest)	2 (0–4)	1 (0–4)	2 (0–5)
Tertile 2	15 (8–22)	12 (4–20)	16 (8–25)
Tertile 3	83 (76–90)	87 (79–95)	82 (73–90)
Teaching hospital	77 (71–84)	73 (61–84)	79 (72–87)	0.29

^aData are presented as No. (%) unless otherwise specified.