An Old Solution for a New Problem: Eloesser Flap Management of Infected Defibrillator Patches
Heidi B Schubmehl1, Huan Huan Sun1, Jessica S Donington1
1Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, NYU School of Medicine, New York, New York.
The Annals of Thoracic Surgery
|May 22, 2017
Abstract:
Cardiac surgery patients with infected implantable cardioverter defibrillator hardware face high morbidity with both surgical and nonoperative management options. We present a case of infected epicardial patch defibrillator leads in a patient with prohibitively high risk of death with open surgical removal. As a less morbid alternative, an Eloesser flap was used to convert his presenting mediastinal empyema necessitans into a chronic, manageable wound.
