removal of sternum

I was 59 years old and had to go in to get five bypasses. We thought everything went fine and I went home for two days and had to be rushed back to the hospital, two of the bypasses had closed and they went back in and put a stent in one and couldn’t do anything with the other one . My EF was only 15% so they sent me to Lexington to get a heart transplant, before they could do anything my incision started leaking infection I had caught Serratia. It was so bad that they told my daughter not to expect me to make it off the table but they had to take my sternum out also. I was on such strong anabiotic‘s that it messed my kidneys up and I had to take dialysis. They put me in a coma for a week also. That was two years ago and I still can’t do anything for being so weak and can’t breathe. They used a pectoral muscle and a muscle out of the right side of my stomach to try to make a flap.

I am a newbie , had a cabbage 2 yrs ago.got MRSA a week after surgery, went in took my plates out..lots of debridement (14) , now they want to take my sternum, I am 60 yrs old female, how long does surgery take for this kind of surgery.

My husband had his sternum removed 7 1/2 years ago do to Agent Orange tumor. He was on heavy pain meds until last year. Tens 3 times a day and 4 5mg 4 times. When you don't have the pain under control it stresses your body out. Took my husband awhile to believe me. You have to take it before the pain starts. Once he understood this his quality of life improved. He is down to one long acting 10mg Oxycontin and 5-325mg Oxycodone afternoon. He uses Lidocaine Ointment 5%. Rx when he has been active. He will also use the 5mg if more pain med is needed. Hope this helps

Body armour may work...???

Welcome to the club, I am trying to talk a thoracic surgeon into replacing my sternum with a printed one or one from a cadaver.

My father has had complications after a quadruple bypass and this thread has helped immensely understand the different things that can happen as well as living with sternum removal, so I would like to thank each of you for sharing your story. I'd like to share my father's story thus far. He had a heart attack and waited four days to go to the hospital (1/6/2022), because he thought it was indigestion. After finding out it was a heart attack, he was admitted to the hospital for quadruple bypass. He is a smoker, type two diabetic who is also an atrial fibrillation (a-fib) patient. The left side of his heart was only working in the mid 30% prior to heart attack and after the attack went down to 20%. After bypass the doctors said he is in the high 20s to low 30s. About three days after surgery, he was diagnosed with ICU delirium, renal failure and now a permanent dialysis patient as his kidneys did not wake up from surgery (he had prior kidney problems and we were told this was a high possibility). After these diagnoses, he started to leak through his sutures. They opened him back up to glue his chest back as they thought that his coughing may have caused a small separation. When they went back in to close him up, they noticed that the wiring in his chest came loose, and they had to remove/replace it. Now, he was told he had a minor infection and was given a round of antibiotics. He was setup with a wound vac that was about 2" in width and spent the next week and half in the ICU. He was finally transferred to a regular room and for the following couple weeks continued with a wound vac change M/W/F. As the wound vac was changed, they had to continue to cut out tissue as he was not healing. His wound vac quickly became about 5 to 6" in width. Another week went by, and he still was not showing signs of healing. They decided on an omentum fat flap procedure. He showed minor signs of the omentum flap taking, but still had WBC count in the 24k showing that he was still fighting an infection. The infection disease specialist was monitoring him this entire time and trying to adjust his antibiotics/anti-fungal medications to assist with his healing. We just reached the point where they have completely removed his sternum (2/21/2022) due to the infection spread. The doctors say that the omentum flap is now taking, and he is showing signs of healing. Now we're waiting to make sure everything is continuing on the positive track and his candida infection has been removed to the fullest extent and if anything lingers the anti-fungal medication will take care of it. During this whole process, it has been very difficult to get his diabetes under control and he has seen numbers as low as 40 and as high as 400s and he has been on the BOLUS diet (cardiac/diabetic/kidney). Any suggestions on things we should be asking or watching through this process will be of great help. Do and Don'ts after sternum removal would be some much help and any other advice or expectations are greatly appreciated.

I've had the same problem, and it is very disheartening. I'm glad to have found this site. I never realized there are so many others suffering the effects of a HOSPITAL-ACQUIRED INFECTION. This infection in my sternum from the very first surgery for double bypass has wrecked my life and certainly my plans for retirement.

I'm glad to have found this site. I never realized there are so many others suffering the effects of a HOSPITAL-ACQUIRED INFECTION. This infection in my sternum from the very first surgery for double bypass has wrecked my life and certainly my plans for retirement.