What question did this study set out to answer?

To investigate two separate hospital outbreaks of sternal wound infections caused by Mycobacterium fortuitum complex organisms in open-heart surgery patients.

April 1, 1981The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Two Outbreaks of Sternal Wound Infections Due to Organisms of the Mycobacterium fortuitum Complex

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Authors

PHP C HoffmanCenters for Disease Control and Prevention DFDavid W. FraserUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison FRFrancis RobicsekUniversity of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Implication

Epidemiologic investigation reveals sternal wound infections caused by rapidly growing mycobacteria following cardiac surgery, highlighting atypical pathogens in postoperative complications.

Key Points

To investigate two separate hospital outbreaks of sternal wound infections caused by Mycobacterium fortuitum complex organisms in open-heart surgery patients.
Epidemiologic investigations and environmental culturing were carried out across two independent hospitals experiencing clusters of sternal infections following open-heart surgery.
Evaluated cohorts included 80 patients undergoing cardiac surgery over a 10-week window at the first hospital and 9 patients over a two-week window at the second hospital.
At the first hospital, 19 of 80 cardiac surgery patients (23.8%) developed sternal infections caused by Mycobacterium chelonei.
At the second hospital, 4 of 9 cardiac surgery patients (44.4%) developed sternal incisional infections caused by Mycobacterium fortuitum.
Environmental and surgical material cultures yielded negative findings, leaving the precise contamination source unidentified due to investigations starting at least two months post-surgery after original materials were discarded.

Cite This Study

Hoffman et al. (1981) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a705bca5d37378ac1dd71a4 https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/143.4.533

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Implication

Epidemiologic investigation reveals sternal wound infections caused by rapidly growing mycobacteria following cardiac surgery, highlighting atypical pathogens in postoperative complications.

Two Outbreaks of Sternal Wound Infections Due to Organisms of the Mycobacterium fortuitum Complex

Discussion

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Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

Two Outbreaks of Sternal Wound Infections Due to Organisms of the Mycobacterium fortuitum Complex

Discussion

Member takes

Implication

Key Points

Cite This Study

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