Public health experts offer advice about heart surgery infections

Sarah Sipek | | Cardiovascular Business | Interventional Cardiology

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than half a million patients who underwent open-heart surgery since 2012 could have been exposed to a type of nontuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM).

The CDC previously announced the bacteria is being transmitted through a German-made heater-cooler unit, the Stöckert 3T heater-cooler, which helps keep a patient’s circulating blood at a specific temperature during operations. The CDC estimates pproximately 60 percent of the 250,000 heart bypass procedures performed each year in the U.S. use this heater-cooler.

The Washington Post spoke with consumer advocates and health experts about what patients should do.

Click below to read the full article:

What you need to know about those new, deadly heart-surgery infections

Sarah Sipek

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