Management of pediatric cardiac surgery wound: a literature review
Angela Prendin1, Benedicta Tabacco2, Paola Claudia Fazio3
1Dr.ssa in Infermieristica. aprendin@yahoo.it.
Insights
Pediatric sternal wound infections after cardiac surgery are serious. Improving surveillance by connecting healthcare teams and families can reduce infection rates, despite a lack of standard guidelines.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric cardiac surgery
- Infectious disease prevention
- Healthcare-associated infections
Background:
- Sternal wound infection is a severe complication in pediatric cardiac surgery (0-18 years).
- It leads to increased morbidity, mortality, and prolonged hospitalization.
- Interventions before, during, and after surgery can prevent sternal wound infections.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify and discuss best practices for preventing, identifying, and treating cardiac surgery site infections in pediatric patients.
- To address the lack of standardized guidelines in this critical area.
Main Methods:
- A systematic literature search was conducted using the PubMed database.
- Criteria included full text, 20-year publication window, human subjects, English language, and pediatric age range (0-18 years).
- Twenty relevant articles were selected from sixty-six initial results and categorized into four themes.
Main Results:
- A significant lack of standardized guidelines for managing pediatric cardiac surgery patients was identified.
- Some centers utilize antibiotic prophylaxis protocols with measurable interventions.
- Infection surveillance systems involving families post-discharge have been implemented in certain centers.
Conclusions:
- Standardized guidelines for preventing pediatric cardiac surgery site infections are lacking.
- Collaboration between multidisciplinary staff and families enhances infection surveillance.
- Improved surveillance networks are crucial for reducing infection incidence.
Background:
Sternal wound infection is a severe complication of cardiac surgery in the pediatric population (0-18 years old) that can lead to increased morbidity, mortality, and prolonged hospitalization. Health professionals have the ability to perform some interventions during the pre, intra and post-surgery to correctly manage sternal wounds, with the goal of preventing infections.
Objectives:
To identify and discuss current best practice in the prevention, incidence, and treatment of infections of the cardiac surgery site in the pediatric population.
Methods:
Between February 20th 2021 and February 28th 2021 we consulted the PubMed database adopting full text, 20 years, Humans, English, Child aged 0 to 18 years as criteria. Twenty articles out of sixty-six were considered relevant to this study. These were divided into four themes.
Results:
All studies highlight the lack of standard guidelines for managing pediatric patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Some centers developed protocols for managing antibiotic prophylaxis supported by measurable interventions; others implemented infection surveillance systems involving families taking care of patients after hospital discharge.
Discussions:
the identification of healthcare-associated infections in the pediatric population after cardiac surgery is useful in all peri-operative phases. The limited and restricted literature connected to single centers, with relatively small sample sizes, the use of a single database.
Conclusion:
There is a lack of standard guidelines. The prevention of site infection ought to the goal of reducing surgical site infections. Building a network between the multidisciplinary staff and the pediatric patient's family improves the infection surveillance system, reducing the incidence of infections.
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