[Open-chest management with Esmarch bandages after lung transplantation]

There are patients in whom management in an open-chest state after lung transplantation is necessary due to over-sized grafts, heart failure, use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), or bleeding. In such patients, we suture Esmarch bandages, which are used for orthopedic surgery, to the open chest wound and perform wound management. We report 3 patients in whom wound management using this method was performed due to postoperative cardiac failure, primary graft dysfunction, and a postoperative pulmonary edema, respectively. Due to improvement in the wound management method and use of appropriate antibiotics, each patient could be managed without developing wound infection. This method was also useful for the management of bleeding.