[Vacuum-assisted closure therapy for the treatment of sternal wound infection after cardiac surgery].
Sternal wound infection is still one of the critical and challenging complications after cardiac surgery. Vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) therapy is a unique and simple system that helps promote wound healing. We report 3 cases with the sternal wound infection after cardiac surgery, in which VAC therapy was applied between January, 2005 and April, 2007. Two of them had good response to VAC therapy and had their wound healed after 3 and 5 weeks, respectively. However, the remaining case, in which bilateral internal thoracic artery had been taken down for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and osteomyelitis of the sternum was not well controlled, did not respond to VAC therapy. Our results suggested that VAC might facilitate wound healing of the patients with sternal wound infection only after abscess was drained and opened, while it might not be useful for the patents with osteomyelitis.
Nishimura
K
K
Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Yonago, Japan.
Nakamura
Y
Y
Harada
S
S
Saiki
M
M
Marumoto
A
A
Kanaoka
Y
Y
Nishimura
M
M
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D054843:Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy; D013249:Sternum / Q000293:injuries*; D013530:Surgical Wound Infection / Q000601:surgery*