Escherichia coli sternal osteomyelitis after open heart surgery

Deep-seated infections after open-heart surgical procedures, fortunately, are uncommon with appropriate prophylactic antibiotics and careful aseptic technique. When serious infection, such as sternal osteomyelitis, does occur, the effects are devastating and usually require one or more debridement procedures. The organisms usually implanted in postoperative sternal infections are primarily Staphylococcus aureus and aquatically based gram-negative bacilli. Common gram-negative pathogens such as Escherichia coli are very unusual in this setting. We report a case of E. coli sternal osteomyelitis in a diabetic patient after coronary artery bypass grafting.