“Early” Delayed Sternal Closure Following Pediatric Cardiac Surgery

Delayed sternal closure is commonly used following pediatric cardiopulmonary bypass surgery for many reasons including support of the failing myocardium. We hypothesized that, as a result of improvements in perioperative care, sternal closure could be achieved at an earlier postoperative time than the 3 to 5 days typically reported in the literature.Retrospective chart review of all bypass surgery (n = 585) performed in a single center over a...