OBJECTIVE To report our experience with the laparoscopically harvested omental flap in the treatment of deep sternal wound infection, and to present a modification and introduce two supportive techniques in the perioperative management. METHODS Between June 2005 and September 2007, six patients with grade IV (El Oakley-Wright classification) deep sternal wound infection following a median ste...

AIM Vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) was primarily designed for the treatment of pressure ulcers or chronic, debilitating wounds. Recently, VAC has become an encouraging treatment modality for sternal wound infection after cardiac surgery, providing superior results to conventional treatment strategies. METHODS From November 2004 to September 2006, 34 patients, undergoing VAC therapy for sternal...

Background and Objectives: Duration of antibiotic prophylaxis for cardiac surgery is still debated and controversial. International guidelines are vague: French guidelines recommend an intraoperative administration, while the Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ guidelines suggest that optimal postoperative prophylactic antibiotics be given for 48 hours or less. Very few studies have compared the same...

BACKGROUND To report our experience, with Deep mediastinal wound infections (DMWI). Emphasis was given to the management of deep infections with omental flaps METHODS From February 2000 to October 2007, out of 3896 cardiac surgery patients (prospective data collection) 120 pts (3.02%) developed sternal wound infections. There were 104 males & 16 females; (73.7%) CABG, (13.5%) Valves & (9.32%)...

Vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) has recently been adopted as an acceptable modality for management of sternotomy wound infections. Although generally efficacious, the use of negative pressure devices has been associated with complications such as bleeding, retention of sponge, and empyema. We report the first case of greater omental hernia as a rare complication of vacuum-assisted closure of ster...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to investigate the influence of deep sternal wound infection on long-term survival following cardiac surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS In our institutional database we retrospectively evaluated medical records of 4732 adult patients who received open-heart surgery from January 1995 through December 2005. The predictive factors for DSWI were determined using logistic re...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the protective effect of topical rifamycin SV treatment against sternal wound infection (SWI) in diabetic patients undergoing on-pump coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. METHODS One hundred and fifty-nine diabetic patients who were scheduled to undergo isolated on-pump CABG surgery were included. Eight were excluded for various reas...

We present a case of a 77-year old female who had undergone a coronary artery bypass grafting with an aortic valve replacement and developed three month later a Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sternal wound infection which was successful treated with Daptomycin combined with vacuum-assisted closure (VAC).

We report the case of a deep sternal wound infection with sternal osteomyelitis caused by Gordonia bronchialis after open-heart surgery. The isolate was identified as a G. bronchialis by 16S rRNA and hsp65 gene sequencing, having initially been misidentified as a Rhodococcus by a commercial phenotypic identification system.