The Clinical Pathway

There is a trend toward earlier discharge of thoracic surgical patients. The potential for respiratory complications, and particularly wound complications continues well into the discharge period. Heart Hugger™ enables patients to stabilize their wound, continuing aggressive coughing and deep breathing exercises while resuming normal activities: walking, climbing stairs, getting into and out of automobiles, etc.

Selected Published Papers on Complications

"A Multimodal approach for reducing wound infections after sternotomy”  Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery 3 (2004) 206-210 Institutional report – Cardiac General www.icvts.org Lars-Goran Dahlin*, Hans Granfeldt, Henrik Hultkvist Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Linkoping Heart Centre, SE-581 85 Linkoping, Sweden, Revised 10 June 2003; received in revised form 24 November 2003; accepted 25 November 2003 “A Better Way to Treat Most Sternal Wound Complications After Cardiac Surgery” E. Charles Douville, MD, James W. Asaph, MD, Ronald J. Dworkin, MD, John R. Handy, Jr, MD, Clifford S. Canepa, MD, Gary L Grunkemeir, PhD, and YingXing Wu, MD Accepted for publication April 27, 2004 Address reprint request to Dr. Douville, The Oregon Clinic PC, 507 NE 47th Ave, Portland OR 97213; E-mail: ecdouville@orclinic.com 0003-4975/04/$30 Doi:10.1016/j.athoracsur.2004.04.082 ©2004 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Published be Elsevier Inc. www.elsevier.com “Superficial Wound Dehiscence After Median Sternotomy: Surgical Treatment Versus Secondary Wound Healing” Jacob Zeitani, MD, Fabio Bertoldo, MD, Carlo Bassano, MD, PhD, Alfonso Penta de Peppo, MD, Antonio Pellergrino, MD, Fadi M. El Fakhri, MD, Luigi Chiariello, MD Division of Cardiac Surgery, Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy Accepted for publication August 6, 2003 Address reprint request to Dr. Zeitani, Division of cardiac Surgery, Tor Vergata University, European Hospital, Via Portuense 700, 00149 Rome, Italy; email: zeitani@hotmail.com 2004 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Published be Elsevier Inc.