ISSN: 2640-236X
Authors: Srivastava DK*
In the modern era of cardiac surgery, median sternotomy is still gold standard approach to most of the surgical procedures because the main concern of surgeon and patients is safety without taking any risk. We have evaluated patients with mature scar who had median sternotomy at least one year previously. A database of patients with median sternotomy operated from May 2016 to April 2017 existed and every fourth patient was approached and invited to participate in the trial. The patients were evaluated in OPD. A total of 90 patients were approached out of which 60 participated in the study. Participants were assessed by the clinician and photography of the scar was done. Sternotomy scars were assessed using POSAS version 2.The POSAS is both patient and clinician based using a continuous scale. The patient component of the POSAS ranged from 6-52(maximum possible score of 60 for the worst scar) with a mean of 18.26. The total clinician scale score ranged from 6-44(maximum of 60) with an average of 17.52. This study shows that hypertrophic scarring can develop in 1 in 5 patients and 1 in 3 can present with poor healing. Future comparative studies will be needed to show whether surgical safety is utmost importance only or aesthetic value also include in scar assessment.
Keywords: Scar; Congenital; Surgical; Sternotomy
