Risk factors of sternal wound infection after pediatric cardiac surgery
Risk factors of sternal infection in children after cardiac surgery are presented. It is shown that the sternal surgical infection is a serious complication in pediatric cardiac surgery. Many studies have shown that 2,3-8% of the cases it were the combination of different localization of the infection site. However, according to the literature cardiac surgeons often have to deal with serious complications such as endocarditis (0,9 to 2,6%), mediastinitis (0,2 to 3,3%), etc. Among all cases of infection in the postoperative period, the frequency of sternal wound infections among children was 0,2-11%. Recommendations on prevention to development sternal wound infection in children after cardiac surgery is absent, so we have to rely on any recommendation for adults, or to develop a program for the prevention to development of wound infection in children. Elimination of wound infection is difficult to achieve as it requires the complex measures treatment of patients since admission to hospital till discharge. Among the objective indicators of quality of care (hospital mortality rate, incidence of stroke, myocardial infarction), the incidence of infectious complications could be an integral indicator of quality care. The improvement of surgical skills, intensive care unit treatment, quality of anesthesiaand perfusion are necessary to achieve the elimination of wound infection in pediatric cardiac surgery.