Tschudin-Sutter et al identified risk factors associated with serious sternal infections following cardiac surgery. These can help to identify patients who may benefit from more aggressive management. The authors are from University Hospital Basel in Switzerland.
Patient selection: cardiac surgery with sternotomy
Outcome: serious sternal wound infections
The risk factor identified on multi-variate analysis was retention of surgical drains for longer than 48 hours.
Additional risk factors found during univariate analysis:
(1) resuscitation during hospital stay
(2) prolonged time on extracorporeal circulation (hazard ratio increases with the number of minutes, with mean for infections 146 minutes vs 105 for controls)
(3) hypoalbuminemia
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