Effect of Intranasal Mupirocin in Preventing Post-operative Infection after Open Heart Surgery

Surgical site infection is one of the most important complications of cardiac surgery, and in 50% of cases, is caused by Staphylococcus species. This study evaluated the effectiveness of intranasal administration of mupirocin in reducing nasal bacterial colonization, mediastinal, sternal, pulmonary, and skin infections after open-heart surgery.

This descriptive study investigated the records of patients who developed post-operative infection following open-heart surgery in Sari Fatemeh Zahra Hospital during 2011-2015. Treatments were done in two different periods: first period from 2011 to September 2013 and the second period from October 2013 to March 2015. In second course, intra-nasal administration of mupirocin was done to all patients, as a routine hospital care. Then, the incidence of post-operative infection, type, and site of infection were compared.

Frequency of infection was 78.26% in the group that had recieved mupirocin and 46.29% in the group that had not received mupirocin. The rate of surgical site infection in the group that had received mupirocin was 21.74% and in the group without mupirocin it was 53.71% (P= 0.000). We observed significant reductions in the incidence of superficial infection of the incision (1.85% in the group that was given mupirocin vs. 10.9% in the group without mupirocin, P= 0.009), foot superficial infections (23.1% in the group that had received mupirocin vs. 27.7% in the group without mupirocin, P= 037), and deep soft tissue infection of foot (10.3% in the group that had received mupirocin and 18.18% in the group that had nor received mupirocin).

Intra-nasal administration of mupirocin could prevent cutaneous infections after cardiac surgery and also reduce hospital length of stay.