Winnipeg’s St. Boniface Hospital and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Cardiac Sciences Program notified patients of the potential risk of infection on Monday morning.
The message was directed to adult cardiac surgery patients who had open heart surgery since 2012.
The device used to heat and cool blood during open heart surgery has been linked to a bacterial infection caused by mycobacterium chimaera, a type of bacteria known as non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM).
(Source: SORINGROUP)
Dr. Rakesh Arora, a cardiac surgeon with the Cardiac Sciences Program, said although there have been no reported infections in Manitoba, there is still a potential risk.
The priority is to “contact everybody in light that there might be an infection risk,” he said. “The risk of infection, again, is very low,” he stressed.
The risk of infection is less than 1 per cent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States.
The devices are essential to performing open heart surgeries.
“[They] are used in hospitals across the country, as well as the United States and Europe. It is strongly suspected the bacteria was present in the machines upon manufacturing but was not detected at the time,” said a release from the WRHA.
Dr. Arora said over 4,300 patients have undergone open heart surgery at St. Boniface since 2012. He said all of those people will be contacted and advised of the risk. They will also be told who to contact should they have questions or concerns.
“The infection is not contagious and cannot be spread person to person,” said Dr. Evelyn Lo, SBH Director, Infection Prevention and Control. “There is no screening test to see if patients have been exposed to NTM during their surgery, and the infection is not detectable without the presence of symptoms.”
The bacteria rarely causes complications and in the case of an infection, it is very slow growing and difficult to diagnose. The WRHA said pateints can develop symptoms months or even years after surgery.
Symptoms can include:
night sweats
muscle aches
weight loss
fatigue
unexplained fever
redness, heat, or pus around the sternal surgical incision
Individuals who have had open heart surgery should contact their family physician if they are experiencing the symptoms listed. They can also contact the Cardiac Clinic line at 1-877-358-0426 to be screened.
- With files from CTV Winnipeg's Michelle Gerwing
