The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Vol 48, 584-586, Copyright © 1989 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
The danger in skin grafting the bare mediastinum after sternectomy for postcoronary bypass dehiscence
R Shafir, J Weiss, O Herman and A Elami
Department of Plastic Surgery, Rokach Hospital, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
We describe a patient who underwent coronary bypass grafting, after which
severe mediastinitis and sternal osteomyelitis occurred. Repair after
sternectomy was undertaken with a rectus-abdominis myocutaneous flap. The
distal fifth of the flap underwent necrosis and was replaced by a meshed
split-thickness skin graft. A year later, a clip marking one of the bypass
grafts nearly eroded through the skin graft, endangering the bypass graft.
The skin graft was removed by abrasion, and the bypass graft was covered
with a pectoralis muscle flap. We recommend that skin grafting of a
granulating wound over coronary artery bypass grafts be avoided if
possible.