Cardiac surgery and sepsis in postoperative period – our experience

The occurrence of sepsis after cardiac surgery is a rare event; however, its oc-currence showed catastrophic clinical outcomes. The high morbidity and mor-tality revealed the need to improve treat-ment, aiming at patients’ better clinical outcome.

Patients that develop sepsis, regardless of the infectious focus and the subjacent dis-ease, present high morbidity and mortali-ty, which vary from 17% to 65%. The main predictors of infections in the postopera-tive period are: body mass index ≥40kg/m², haemodialysis in the preoperative period, pre-op cardiogenic shock, age ≥80 years, pre-op treatment with immunosup-pressive agents, diabetes mellitus, ECC time ≥200 minutes, mechanical circula-tory support, three or more revascular-ized vessels.

From January 2015 to December 2015, we studied 675 adult patients who underwent cardiac surgery. Prophylactic antibiotic therapy was prescribed and given accord-ing to our protocol, from the induction of anaesthesia to the first postoperative day. Sepsis in the postoperative period was defined as evidence on infection associ-ated with two or more criteria of systemic inflammatory response syndrome: body temperature >38°C or <36°C, leukocytes >12,000 cells/mm³, positive blood cul-tures, respiratory rate >20/min, heart rate>100/min.

sepsis, postoperative period, cardiac surgery

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