The cost of vacuum-assisted closure therapy in treatment of deep sternal wound infection.
Objectives. Surgical sites infections are very expensive and the total costs for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery followed by deep sternal wound infection (DSWI) with conventional therapy are estimated to be 2.8 times that for normal, CABG surgery. Promising results have been reported with vacuum-assisted closure (VAC) therapy in patients with DSWI. This study presents the cost of VA