ABSTRACT
Incidence The majority of sternal wounds seen by the plastic surgeon are infections sec
ondary to dehiscence of a median sternotomy following a postoperative infection. The incidence of median sternotomy dehiscence is reported in up to 5 percent of open heart procedures. The patients at highest risk are diabetics undergoing coro nary revascularization using the internal mammary artery since this procedure re sults in impaired blood supply to the healing sternal incision.
