Post-surgical infection in elective cardiac surgeries: what is the role of dental evaluation? A retrospective study

To evaluate the prevalence and clinical characteristics of post-surgical infections after coronary and/or valvular heart surgery at a tertiary hospital and to examine the relationship between these infections and prior dental evaluation.

A retrospective study was conducted among patients who underwent elective cardiac surgery at InCor-HCFMUSP between January 2018 and April 2019.

The sample included 1,276 surgeries, of which 10.6% were associated with post-surgical infection. Length of hospital stay and infection-related mortality differed significantly between patients with and without post-surgical infection (p<0.0001). Surgical site infections were the most prevalent infections, accounting for 6.2% of the sample, whereas pneumonia was the least frequent, accounting for 0.2%. Dental evaluation was performed in 62.3% of patients in the Valve Surgery Group and 25.8% of those in the Coronary Surgery Group. Among patients who underwent dental evaluation, 89.8% did not develop infection; dental evaluation was also significantly associated with length of hospital stay in the Valve and Coronary Surgery Groups (p=0.0187 and p=0.0317, respectively).

Post-surgical infection occurred in 10.6% of surgeries. Prior dental evaluation was not significantly associated with post-surgical infection, although a favorable percentage trend was observed among evaluated patients. Poor oral health is a risk factor for certain infections; however, these infections were not frequent in this sample. Hospital stay was shorter among patients who underwent dental evaluation.