title: Clinical Utility of Preimplantation Homograft Cultures in Patients Undergoing Congenital Cardiac Surgery.
abstract: Institutional practice at our hospital (Boston Children's Hospital) is to culture homografts before implantation during congenital cardiac surgery. Over a 4-year period, 5% (73 of 1376) of these cultures were positive, but the results had minimal clinical impact. Our experience demonstrates that there is limited utility in preimplantation cultures of cardiac homografts.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases.
authors.forename: Preeti
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mehrotra
authors.affiliation: Departments of Cardiovascular Surgery, and.
authors.forename: Luis G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Quinonez
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases.
authors.forename: Neeraj K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Surana
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital.
authors.forename: Nira
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pollock
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Sandora
mesh_terms: D064591:Allografts / Q000382:microbiology*; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000601:surgery*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011300:Preoperative Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies
keywords: allograft; cardiac surgical procedure; homograft; preimplantation culture; tissue banks.