Clinical outcome of patients with deep sternal wound infection managed by vacuum-assisted closure compared to conventional therapy with open packing: a retrospective analysis.

Background: It is suggested that the vacuum technique is a promising new method for the therapy of mediastinitis, but reliable investigations are currently almost completely lacking. We therefore compared clinical outcome of patients whose sternal infection was managed with the vacuum-assisted closure system or with the conventional procedure of open packing.

Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis in 68 cases of sternal wound infection that were identified at our Heart Center between September 1998 and September 2003.