Is Sternum Infection Possible?

I am concerned for my husband. He is 44 years old and he is preparing himself for the heart surgery that will take place next week. I am not that well informed about what exactly surgeons will do, they called it myocardial revasculization with the use of internal mammary arteries. Our friend told us that his wife had a similar problem and that everything went ok, except for the possibility of Sternum Infection. Is Sternum Infection Possible?

Well, you do know that every surgery carries with it certain percentage of risk, including complications during procedure and post op problems. I will just tell you several statistics from surgeries performed on 750 patients from 1994 to 2002. Forty-four patients had problems with developed sternal wound. Of these 44, 22 had sternal infection. 15 of them had mediastinitis. So, 44 patients is around 5.9% percent, which is a small percentage so I guess you should not worry about that much.