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CASE REPORT article

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiovascular Surgery
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2024.1480392
This article is part of the Research Topic Case Reports in Heart Surgery: 2024 View all 5 articles

Case Report: Fusarium falciforme Pericardial and Sternal Wound Infection Following Orthotopic Heart Transplantation

Provisionally accepted
Jeffrey Rodgers Jeffrey Rodgers 1Morgan Hill Morgan Hill 2*Sanford Zeigler Sanford Zeigler 2
  • 1 College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, United States
  • 2 Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, Illinois, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Fusarium, a genus of soil and vegetation-based fungi, is a rare cause of infections in immunocompromised individuals, including transplant recipients. In this case, we describe successful treatment of Fusarium falciforme mediastinitis in the recipient of an orthotopic heart transplant. Treatment included multiple courses of combination antibiotic and antifungal therapy several surgical debridements, continuous mediastinal irrigation with antifungal agents, and staged closure with an omental flap. This is the first report describing successful eradication of fusarium sp. mediastinitis and provides a template for treating complex cases of mediastinitis and osteomyelitis.

    Keywords: Heart transplant, Fungal Infection, Mediastinitis, Infection, transplant, wound vac, wound vac therapy

    Received: 13 Aug 2024; Accepted: 26 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rodgers, Hill and Zeigler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Morgan Hill, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, Illinois, United States

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