POSTOPERATIVE MEDIASTINITIS IN CARDIAC SURGERY - PATHOPHYSIOLOGY, RISK FACTORS AND PREVENTION

Infective complications of the surgical site, namely the sternal wound, and its most severe form that is mediastinitis, represent in cardiac surgery a major problem in terms of morbidity and mortality, with great suffering of the patient, increase the length of hospital stay and the related costs. In literature they have been identified in numerous studies the major risk factors predisposing to the development of sternal infections and mediastinitis, respectively divided into pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative. Knowledge of these risk factors enable clinicians, who are in charge of the patients undergoing cardiac surgery, to take all possible measures to control these risk factors, and therefore prevent, as much as possible, these specific complications, for the best clinical outcome.