Heart Surgery Machines Tied to M. chimaera Outbreak Mortality approaches 50% in case series

Indeed, the findings might be just the beginning, according to Arjun Srinivasan, MD, of the CDC in Atlanta, who is the SHEA program chair for the meeting. These are "very, very serious infections," he said, explaining that they are very rare and slow to develop, so that the link to cardiac surgery might not immediately be recognized. The mortality rate approaches 50% in the cases, Appenheimer reported. "There's ongoing discussion about how to deal with this issue," he said, as heater-cooler devices are essential to cardiac surgery and the machines in question are very widely used. Indeed, earlier this month, the FDA updated its safety guidance on the devices and continues to urge healthcare providers to be watchful for M. chimaera contamination, especially in LivaNova 3T machines made before September 2014. http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/IDWeek/61141?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2016-11-01&eun=g721819d0r&pos=3