Prevention of Infections in Cardiac Surgery (PICS) Prevena Study

Despite the routine use of antibiotics before and after cardiac surgery, infections of the chest wound remain a common life threatening complication of heart surgery that is preventable. Antibiotic prophylaxis is well accepted to be the cornerstone of prevention for these infections. The best choice of antibiotic prophylaxis in patients undergoing open heart surgery is, however, unclear. A large number of relevant pathogens are not covered by the primarily recommended antibiotic for prophylaxis, and there is a large variability in the antibiotics physicians use in practice and a lack of evidence supporting these choices. Appropriate management of the wound is probably also highly relevant in terms of infection prevention; however, there is a lack of strong evidence guiding the choice of wound management strategies as a means to reduce surgical site infection. The proposed study will test whether dual antibiotic prophylaxis is superior to single-agent prophylaxis with cefazolin, and shed light on whether or not modern negative-pressure wound management technology lower the risk of sternal surgical site infections.