New Studies Find One in Five Older Adults Gets Postoperative Infection After Heart Surgery

Two new studies led by Michigan Medicine have revealed that “one in five older adults gets an infection up to six months after heart surgery – with women far more likely to develop one.”

The studies examined thousands of cases of patients who “underwent coronary artery bypass grafting, also known as CABG or heart bypass, or aortic valve replacement.” Women’s odds of developing an infection were 60% higher than men’s; the three most common infection types were “urinary tract, pneumonia, and sepsis.” Black patients also had higher rates of infection (28%) compared to white patients (19.2%).

Overall, 21.2% of Medicare beneficiaries studied “developed an infection up to six months after surgery.” Pneumonia and UTIs accounted for around 17% of all infections, “and rates of infection varied nearly 40% across hospitals.”

Heart bypass and aortic valve replacement account for more than 70% of all heart surgeries in the U.S. Co-author of both studies Francis Pagani said that “the findings highlight that patients are at risk for developing infections early and late after their cardiac surgical procedure.” A statewide quality improvement intervention spanning 2012 through 2017 in Michigan led to infection prevention strategies being adopted that lowered risk of pneumonia “relative to the rest of the country.”