Incidence and outcomes of surgical site infection after cardiovascular surgery (complete republication)

Objectives: Surgical site infection in cardiovascular surgery had a great effect on postoperative outcomes. This study examined the current status of surgical site infection and postoperative outcomes used the registered data of the Japan Cardiovascular Surgery Database. Methods: From the registry, we extracted 53,186 cases of thoracic cardiovascular surgery performed under median sternotomy in 2018. According to Japanese Healthcare Associated Infections Surveillance (JHAIS), patients were divided into three groups: coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) with saphenous vein graft (SVG) (SVG+ ; n = 14,246), CABG without SVG (SVG−; n = 5535), and operations other than CABG (no CABG; n = 33,405). The incidence of deep sternal wound infection, leg wound infection, hospital death, and hospitalization more than 90 days was examined. Results: The incidence of deep sternal wound infection is 1.4% in all cases and 1.7% in SVG+ , 1.2% in SVG-, and 1.4% in no CABG. In deep sternal wound infection cases, incidence of hospital death was 24.7% and was higher than no infection cases. Especially, in no CABG group, incidence of hospital death was 30.1%. The long-term hospitalization rate and readmission rate within 30 days of patients with deep sternal wound infection were also high. Conclusions: The incidence of deep sternal wound infection was low, but it has not decreased. Postoperative outcomes in patients with surgical site infection were still bad.