ArticleCritical care (London, England)2023
Post-cardiac surgery fungal mediastinitis: clinical features, pathogens and outcome.
Article in Critical care (London, England), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- A prospective randomized study that compares three different dressings for the prevention of surgical site infections following major heart surgery.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- A bibliometric analysis of research trends in mediastinitis: a rare, high mortality, and complex infectious disease.Journal of thoracic disease · 2026Article
- Article
- Mediastinitis after cardiac surgery, from microbes to management: a systematic review.Mediastinum (Hong Kong, China) · 2026Review
- Candida.JHLT open · 2025Article
- Post-operative infection treatment in cardiac surgery: current practices and future directions.Perioperative medicine (London, England) · 2025Review
- Evolution of postsurgical mediastinitis after Major Heart Surgery (MHS) in the last 12 years: Are we improving?Revista espanola de quimioterapia : publicacion oficial de la Sociedad Espanola de Quimioterapia · 2025Article
- Mediastinal infections: diagnostic and therapeutic advances from traditional surgery to novel minimally invasive techniques.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- Deep Sternal Wound Infection Caused byOpen forum infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Application and challenges of stem cells in cardiovascular aging.Regenerative therapy · 2024Review
- Fungal and bacterial co-infection in the superficial and deep sternal wound after open cardiac surgery.Iranian journal of microbiology · 2023Article
- Surgically Managed Deep Sternal Wound Infection After Heart Transplantation.Transplant infectious disease : an official journal of the Transplantation SocietyArticle
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 11 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe occurrence of mediastinitis after cardiac surgery remains a rare and severe complication associated with poor outcomes. Whereas bacterial mediastinitis have been largely described, little is known about their fungal etiologies. We report incidence, characteristics and outcome of post-cardiac surgery fungal mediastinitis.
methodsMulticenter retrospective study among 10 intensive care units (ICU) in France and Belgium of proven cases of fungal mediastinitis after cardiac surgery (2009-2019).
resultsAmong 73,688 cardiac surgery procedures, 40 patients developed fungal mediastinitis. Five were supported with left ventricular assist device and five with veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation before initial surgery. Twelve patients received prior heart transplantation. Interval between initial surgery and mediastinitis was 38 [17-61] days. Only half of the patients showed local signs of infection. Septic shock was uncommon at diagnosis (12.5%). Forty-three fungal strains were identified: Candida spp. (34 patients), Trichosporon spp. (5 patients) and Aspergillus spp. (4 patients). Hospital mortality was 58%. Survivors were younger (59 [43-65] vs. 65 [61-73] yo; p = 0.013), had lower body mass index (24 [20-26] vs. 30 [24-32] kg/m
conclusionFungal mediastinitis is a very rare complication after cardiac surgery, associated with a high mortality rate. This entity should be suspected in patients with a smoldering infectious postoperative course, especially those supported with short- or long-term invasive cardiac support devices, or following heart transplantation.
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