Cor Vasa 2025, 67(5):571-575 | DOI: 10.33678/cor.2025.030

Prophylactic Negative Pressure Therapy in Reducing the Risk of Sternal Wound Infection after Cardiac Surgery

Salifu Timbilla^a, Ján Gofus^a, Petr Smolák^a, Eva Čermáková^b, Jiří Manďák^a, Jan Vojáček^a

^a Department of Cardiac Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital in Hradec Králové, Charles University, Hradec Králové, the Czech Republic

^b Department of Medical Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine Hradec Králové, Charles University, Hradec Králové, Charles University, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Králové, the Czech Republic

Background: Postoperative sternal wound infections and dehiscence are serious complications of cardiac surgery that increase the length of hospital stay and healthcare costs. Standard wound care may be insufficient for preventing these complications in high-risk patients.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, randomized study comparing the efficacy of closed incisional negative pressure wound therapy (ciNPWT) using Prevena (study group) versus standard wound dressing (control group) in patients at high risk of sternal wound infections following cardiac surgery. Primary outcomes included the incidence of sternal wound infection at seven days and three months postoperatively, and length of hospital stay.

Results: The study cohort comprised 80 patients (64 male, 16 female; mean age 65.4 years) randomized into two groups with 40 patients in each. At 7 days post-operation, there were four patients with sternal wound infection in the study group (10 %) and seven in the control group (17.5%) (p-value=0.52). At 3 months, deep wound infections were present in 1 patient in the study group (2.5%) and 2 in the control group (5%) (p = 1.00). Median length of hospital stay was comparable between the study (12 days) and control (11 days) groups (p-value = 0.75).

Conclusions: Preventive negative pressure wound treatment showed a trend towards reducing the incidence of wound healing complications in high-risk patients following cardiac surgery, although the differences were not statistically significant. Further large-scale studies are warranted to establish the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of this preventive strategy.

Keywords: Closed incisional negative pressure wound therapy, Negative pressure wound therapy, Poststernotomy, Prevena, Sternotomy

Received: January 22, 2025; Revised: January 22, 2025; Accepted: February 24, 2025; Prepublished online: June 2, 2012; Published: November 6, 2025  Show citation