BACKGROUND Postoperative pain management is a critical aspect of patient care. The inflammatory state of the post-sternotomy surgical wound sensitizes nerve endings, causing pain. Unrelieved or improperly managed pain compromises wound healing. Peripheral opioid receptors play a major role in analgesia, particularly under inflammatory conditions where both opioid receptor expression and efficac...

: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has been changing since its initial reports. There a shift from standard CABG, which uses sternotomy and single left internal mammary to the anterior descending (LAD) grafting, plus vein grafts other targets, performed on with aortic cross-clamping. We now have CABG using multiarterial grafts, avoiding manipulation of aorta, through minimally invasive ap...

Objects: Surgical site infection (SSI) remains a major morbidity in patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery. This study evaluated the efficacy of subcutaneous suction drainage decreasing risk SSI sternal wound off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB). Materials and methods: We invested 106 patients, including 25 women (mean age 70.3 ± 9.6 years old), who underwent OPCAB. Patients wer...

BACKGROND Burn wound infections carry considerable mortality and morbidity amongst burn injury victims who have been successfully rescued through the initial resuscitation. This study assessed the prevalent microrganisms causing burn wound infections among hospitalized patients their susceptibility pattern to commonly used antibiotics and the frequency of infections with respect to the duratio...

BACKGROUND Despite the epidemic rise in obesity, few studies have evaluated the effect of obesity on cost following cardiac surgery. We hypothesized that increasing body mass index (BMI) is associated with worse risk-adjusted outcomes and higher cost. METHODS AND RESULTS Medical records for 13 637 consecutive patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (9702), aortic (1535) or mitr...

OBJECTIVE Although deep sternal wound infection (DSWI) after cardiac surgery is infrequent, its consequences are serious. The purposes of this study were to define the risk factors, and to establish the best surgical treatment for DSWI. METHODS Retrospective analysis for 863 patients who underwent cardiac surgery was performed. The patients were divided into the DSWI group (n=17) and the non-...