You are considering or have decided to have cardiac surgery that will or may require the use of the heart lung bypass machine and heater cooler unit during your operation.
The surgical team will discuss the risks and benefits of your proposed surgery with you and your family and these risks are detailed in the consenting process.
Although the overall infection risk remains unchanged, all hospitals have been informed by Public Health England (PHE) of an infection risk associated with all cardiac surgery and ECMOS (long term bypass procedures, used to support patients over a number of days or weeks) that require the use of a heart/ lung bypass machine and a heater cooler device.
The risk is thought to be small, with approximately 5 in 10,000 patients having this type of surgery affected. The level of risk to patients is so small that surgery should not be delayed, as the risks of delaying surgery are greater than proceeding.
Further information:
During most cardiac and some lung operations the body is cooled and warmed by the heart lung machine (cardiopulmonary bypass machine). To do this the bypass machine is connected to a heater / cooler device, which is kept in the operating theatre.
Tests on some of these heater / cooler units across Europe and the UK have revealed a growth of a non-tuberculous Mycobacterium species (a type of bacteria that is common in the environment but does not frequently cause human infections), with the potential for growth of other organisms. There have been reports of a particular species of this slow growing organism called Mycobacterium chimaera causing serious infections in a very small number of patients having operations on their heart valves.
The infection is often slow to develop, usually around 6 months but in some cases may develop several years after the surgical procedure. In the UK a small number of such infections have been reported since 2007.
Given that around 35,000 heart operations on bypass are performed each year of which approximately 15,000 have been heart valve operations, this represents a very small risk.
All cardiothoracic centres across the world have now increased their cleaning and disinfection procedures for heater cooler units used in all heart and lung surgery cases.
All centres test their heater / cooler units for evidence of contamination and growth of these and other micro-organisms. There is no evidence that extra antibiotics during surgery, in most cases, will give any further protection.
Your surgical team will discuss with you whether additional antibiotics would be required in your particular case.
Your recovery will be monitored as part of our routine care.
