Risk Factors of Sternal Wound Infection After Coronary Artery Bypass Graft

Deep sternal wound infection after coronary artery bypass graft is a very dangerous complication as it prolongs hospital stay, increase morbidity and mortality, and increase cost of care.

As a risk factor of surgical site infection, risk index reported by NNIS (national nosocomial infection surveillance), Euroscore, or Society of thoracic surgeon risk score are currently used. However, as various performances are reported regarding these index or scoring systems, and many factors are needed for these index or scoring system, there is a need to develop a more simple risk factor with better performance. We focused on the differential blood cell count, as the neutrophil and lymphocyte count are related to the degree of surgical invasion, and inflammatory response. Previous studies reported that the neutrophilia or lymphopenia is related to postoperative infection. Therefore, we are trying to evaluate the performance of preoperative or postoperative the blood cell differential count as a risk factor for sternal wound infection after coronary artery bypass surgery.