lack of eligible patients

Warmed Surgical Bandage may improve tissue oxygenation and thus on the long run reduce wound infections

Wound infections are common and serious complications of anesthesia and surgery. The morbidity associated with surgical infections is considerable and includes substantial prolongation of hospitalization.

The wound infection risk in patients undergoing cardiac surgery ranges from 0.8 to 17.7% including both superficial and deep sternal infections.

Major factors influencing the incidence of surgical wound infection other than site and complexity of surgery, underlying illness, timely administration of prophylactic antibiotics, intraoperative patient temperature, hypovolemia and tissue oxygen tension. The primary determinant of tissue oxygen availability is local perfusion. Thermoregulatory status is one of the major factors influencing tissue perfusion. Local warming induces pre- capillary vasodilation and improves tissue oxygenation. Local warming of surgical wounds may provide a simple and inexpensive way to reduce perioperative wound complications. Specifically, we will test the hypothesis that Warm- Up therapy increases postoperative tissue oxygen tension in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients ≥18 years of age scheduled for elective cardiac surgery on normothermic cardio-pulmonary bypass will be invited to participate

Exclusion Criteria:

• Emergency surgery
• Pre - or postoperative on intraaortic balloon pump
• Preoperative mechanical ventilation
• Postoperative respiratory failure
• Postoperative extracorporal membrane oxygenation
• Left ventricular function < 40%
• Fever (core temperature > 38 °C) or current infection
• No anticipated or no definitive primary closure of surgical wound.

Tissue oxygen tension maybe difficult to measure in the sternal wound