Surgical site infection after delayed sternal closure in neonates with congenital heart disease:Retrospective Case-control study.

Abstract Objectives: To determine the incidence of surgical site infections (SSIs) in neonatal congenital heart disease patients undergoing delayed sternal closure (DSC) and evaluate risk factors for SSI.Methods: Hospital records of 483 consecutive neonates who underwent surgical intervention between January 2013 and December 2017 were reviewed, and perioperative variables were recorded. Results: We found that the risk of SSI was 87.5% when the body weight was less than 1500 g. When the operative age was between seven and 14 days, the probability of no SSI is about 93.9%. When the duration of the aortic cross-clamp was more than 60 min, the risk of SSI was 91.2%. The incidence rate without SSI was 96.6% when the duration of DSC was less than 24 hours. However, when the duration of DSC was more than 120 hours, the risk of SSI was 88.9% (p = 0.000). Conclusions: With the prolongation of aortic clamping duration, the probability of occurrence of SSI increased in neonatal CHD with DSC. The age at operation and body weight are closely related to the occurrence of SSI in neonatal CHD patients with DSC.