Intranasal mupirocin reduces sternal wound infection after open heart surgery in diabetics and nondiabetics

Background. This study was designed to determine whether decreasing nasal bacterial colonization by applying Mupirocin (MPN) intranasally decreases sternal wound infections. Methods. We prospectively followed 992 consecutive open heart surgery (OHS) patients who did not receive MPN prophylaxis (group I) from January 1, 1995 to October 31, 1996. Group II consisted of 854 consecutive patients followed prospectively from December 1, 1997 to March 31, 1999 treated with intranasal MPN given on the evening before, the morning of OHS, and twice daily for 5 days postoperatively. Results. There was a significant difference in the rate of overall sternal wound infections between the untreated (group I) and the treated group (group II): 2.7% (27 of 992) versus 0.9% (8 of 854) (p = 0.005). The difference was also significant in the diabetic subgroup: 5.1% (14 of 277) (group I) versus 1.9% (5 of 266) (group II) (p = 0.04) and the nondiabetic group: 1.8% (13 of 715) (group I) versus 0.5% (3 of 588) (group II) (p = 0.03). The cost of MPN treatment was $12.47 per patient compared with $81,018 ± $41,567 for a deep wound infection with no antibiotic-related complications recorded. Conclusions. Prophylactic intranasal MPN is safe, inexpensive, and very effective in reducing the overall sternal wound infections by 66.6%.