Post-Heart Surgery Complications Reduce Life Expectancy

But leading cardiac surgeons found a solution

Cardiac surgeon John Braxton and several of his colleagues at Maine Medical Center evaluated the impact of postoperative mediastinitis—swelling and irritation of the chest area between the lungs—on patient recovery time and life expectancy. The study was conducted over a four-year period, commencing in 2008, and evaluated over 15,000 consecutive cases of patients with mediastinitis.

The results of the study showed unequivocally that deep sternal (breastbone) wound infection significantly increases patient mortality over a four-year period.

Why do wounds get infected after open-heart surgery?

The procedure for open-heart surgery is called a sternotomy. The surgeon cuts the sternum (breastbone) in half and opens the thorax up to access the chest cavity.

A sternotomy is the most widely used operation for open-heart surgery because it offers full access to the heart, and it is also safer than other procedures. But it does come with potentially serious risks if the healing process is not carried out correctly or if the patient is obese or has lung disease resulting in severe coughing.

Once the operation is completed the surgeon closes the chest up with thin stainless steel wires, wrapping them around the sternum to hold the fracture together so the bone can heal. This healing process takes 6 - 8 weeks.

Unfortunately, the sternum is far from a motionless bone. Simple movements can cause the sternum to move sufficiently that constant friction occurs in the area resulting in mediastinitis—swelling and inflammation—and preventing the bone from healing properly, leading to lifelong instability.

Severe coughs or excessive weight in obese people can cause the wires to break altogether, separating the breastbone and preventing any healing at all, requiring a further operation to repair it. In the worst cases, this can sometimes lead to death.

The long-term effects of post-operative mediastinitis had never been fully researched. Dr. Braxton’s study found that, during the first postoperative year, the survival rate for patients with mediastinitis came to 78%, while patients without the condition showed a survival rate of 95%. Over a period of four years, the divergence tripled. In conclusion, deep sternal wound infection significantly increases patient mortality.

The revolutionary idea that lessened the mediastinitis problem

A few years after this discovery, the esteemed Dr. Lars Svensson came up with an ingenious method of stabilizing the sternal area through the use of a patented vest that allows for breathing while still naturally reinforcing and supporting the area. It is called the Posthorax Chest Support Vest, a sternal brace that has repeatedly proven itself across multiple clinical trials.

The concept was based on a completely new approach, endorsed by very few cardiac surgeons at the time. The patient must breathe, cough and move, but these motions create internal forces on bone and wires, causing friction between the two sternum halves. Friction, in turn, causes heat and therefore promotes the formation of bacterial infections.

The objective achieved with the Posthorax sternum support vest was prevention or minimization of these internal forces for the duration of the healing process.

To prove its efficacy, the product was thoroughly tested in numerous clinical trials. More than 12,000 patients were treated with the Posthorax sternum support vest. Thirteen clinical trials in six European countries showed astonishing outcomes. This is an enormous number of official trials for a heart-surgery-related product, which rarely garner more than two trials and less than 1,000 patients.

Use of the patented support vest reduced sternal complications by more than 50% and as much as 90% in some trials.

Cost-savings

Finally, an infection of that caliber often requires re-operations and reconstructive plastic surgery. Prevention thereof proved a significant cost-savings factor. The official ratio for that cost-saving benefit is 1-to-5. This is due to a reduced need for antibiotics administered, and an average of a 30-day-decrease of hospitalisation time per patient.

• Ask your doctor to receive a Posthorax heart vest after surgery

• It should be fitted and worn the day before surgery, to get used to it, and applied on the first post-operative day or as early as possible.

• For more information please write an email to: info@posthorax.com