Letters sent to patients in heart-op infection alert
MORE than 2,700 patients who underwent heart surgery have been contacted following fears they may have contracted a serious infection.
Public Health Wales and the seven Welsh health boards have taken the precautionary step of writing to 2,771 patients as part of a UK-wide NHS response.
The Trust says some patients who received heart valve or repair surgery since January 1, 2013, including procedures due to congenital heart surgery, are at “low risk” of having contracted an infection called Mycobacterium chimaera.
The infection is linked to the use of a certain brand of heater-cooler device – a machine used in operating theatres during these types of lifesaving surgery.
The risk to these patients is around one case of infection in 5,000 operations.
Three cases have been identified in patients in Wales, operated on in England and Wales.
In Wales, patients will only receive letters if they received surgery at the University Hospital of Wales, in Cardiff, or in England.
The other hospital in Wales providing heart surgery, Morriston Hospital, in Swansea, does not use the make of device that has been linked to most cases to date.
Symptoms include unexplained fevers, unexplained weight loss, increasing shortness of breath, night sweats, joint or muscular pain, vomiting or abdominal pain, fatigue, and any signs of infection around the surgical site.
Dr Eleri Davies, medical lead for the Healthcare Associated Infections Programme of Public Health Wales, said: “It is important for patients to remember that symptoms of this infection can have far more common causes, so even if you have symptoms following surgery, there is likely to be another explanation for why you feel unwell.
“The risk of patients having acquired the infection is low and is far lower than the risk of delaying life-saving cardiac surgery and so we advise those who are due to have open heart surgery to still go ahead.
“We are writing only to patients who have had heart valve repair or replacement surgery involving the use of a certain brand of heater-cooler device since January 1, 2013, as this group of heart surgery patients are at the highest risk, although the risk is low.”
Guidance on the use and maintenance of heater-cooler devices was issued to cardiac surgical centres in 2015 after the Mycobacterium chimaera infection risk was identified.
No cases of the infection have been identified in patients who had surgery in the UK since the guidance was published.
Dr Graham Shortland, medical director at the University Hospital of Wales, said: “I would like to reassure all patients who have received, or are scheduled to receive, cardiac treatment that they are in safe hands and that we operate a safe service.
“While we acknowledge the low risk presented by the use of the heater-cooler device we use, we have fully implemented the strengthened guidelines on its use, and the risk is negligible in comparison to not having heart surgery.
“The safety of our patients as they come into surgery and the treatment they receive after will always be of the utmost importance.”
If people who have received the letter need further advice or are concerned they should call the dedicated helpline free on 0800 035 2877.