[Surgical treatment of suppurative mediastinitis after operations on the heart under artificial circulation]

An experience of 31 cases of treatment of anterior purulent mediastinitis after operations on the heart enabled the author to conclude that the active surgical treatment by the proposed method (extensive repeated mediastinotomy with drainage and active aspirative washing) allows the primary focus of the infection to be revealed and the concomitant complications to be diagnosed. In their opinion, the active surgical tactics results in the successful treatment of most critical cardiosurgical patients with purulent pericarditis, pleurisies, sepsis and septic conditions when other methods of treatment practically fail to give good results.