[Sterno-mediastinitis after heart transplantation. An easy treatment: irrigation-lavage].

After cardiac transplantation bacterial mediastinitis is a severe early complication. Between 1986 and 1990, we performed 49 cardiac transplantations. Six patients developed purulent mediastinitis. Treatment consisted in surgical debridement, local irrigation, drainage and systemic antibiotics. No patient died of this bacterial mediastinitis. Low cardiac output, re-sternotomy for bleeding, prolonged artificial ventilation were significantly higher in the group with sternal infection. Closed tube irrigation is a simple and efficient treatment of mediastinitis.