Sterile Abscesses

[Jim P]

I have been out of touch for awhile on this site and thought I would tell you my current status. I am now over 12 weeks post-surgery (AVR). I feel great, with no major complications with the sternum, lungs, or new valve. In fact, since about week 9 I have been feeling close to normal.

The biggest problem has been that over the past six weeks I have had a recurring problem with ?sterile abscesses? popping up on my chest, along the OHS incision. Apparently these are my body?s reaction to the sutures under my skin that were used to sew various layers (including chest muscles) back together after OHS (not the wires holding the sternum together or the glue that was used to close the external skin incision).

I have visited my heart surgeon every Monday for the past 6 weeks, and he cuts into the skin and muscle to remove the abscesses. On top of all that, I now have red splotches on my chest from ripping tape off my skin twice daily. My wonderful wife is packing the areas (where the surgeon probes for sutures) with medical packing tape twice per day, then covering it with gauze bandages. My chest looks like a mess ? lots more scars. The abscesses are not infected, but the condition is not improving.

This is somewhat discouraging, as I feel so good otherwise. Because of all these cuts on my chest (one of which is about 2 inches long), I have not been cleared to start cardiac rehab yet. However, I am walking 3 miles almost every day with ease. I know there are far worse life-threatening things that could be happening to me at this point, so that keeps me thinking positive. I am sure that this condition will eventually resolve itself.

I searched on this site for other people who have had similar lingering ?sterile abscess? problems, but have not found any threads on this subject. Has anyone ever heard of this before? If so, how long did it hang on?

 

[Ross]

I can say I haven't heard of it before, so this should be interesting. Sorry it's happening, but how many of us walk away from this without some sort of strange thing happening?

 

[briansmom]

I did not have OHS, but I have had surgery on a dislocated ankle and my knee. I have had the same problem with every surgery. My son also had the same problem with his one of his CABG leg incisions. For us, it was just a few stiches that had to work their way out. They actually reoperated on my ankle because they couldn't figure out the problem. Yours sounds worse. It will eventually get better, but it sounds pretty miserable in the meantime.

 

[Lynlw]

Justin had them with his first heart surgery. He had his surgery at 10 days and we brought him home when he was 5 weeks old. I think it started about a week after that, his incision looked red to me, but the home nurse said it was fine, the next day it was much redder so we took hm to the hospital. They had to lance almost the whole length of the incision, and alot of stuff came out. Then they packed it with gauze that was soaked in saline.and 12 hours later when it was dry we had to rip it out and pack it with more saline soaked guaze, I think they called it "wet to dry dressing". Since we lived close and were finally home, they gave us the option of being admitted or doing the dressings 2 times a day and bring him to get checked every couple days, We stayed home and I can hosetly say out of everything we went thru, the pulling the dried guaze out, which opened the wound again and putting salt water in the wound , while he was screaming, gave me night mares for a while.
It ended up being that Justin tends not to dissolve "dissolving sutures". it usually starts out looking like a pimple and luckily we know as soon as we see one to take him in and they can pull the suture out before it causes a problem. A week after his heart surgery incision needed lanced, we noticed the pimples on his pyloric stenosis incision he had at 17 days, but they just pulled the suture out.
I'm sorry I can't remeber how long it went on for, it was a tough time and alot of it runs together.(It was 19 years ago) It did clear up, but that scar is still pretty wide (it starts at his arm pit and goes around his back almost to his spine.
He's had alot of surgeries since then, and not every stitch caiuse problems, I think his last heart surgery he "only" had 3 or 4 of the pimples, they use tweezers and pull them out. SO you probably already realized this, but if you have any more surgeries w/ disolving sututres, watch for a little pimple.
I hope it heals soon, Lyn

 

[Jim P]

Lyn,

Thank you so much for your message. You described my situation exactly, with the non-dissolving sutures. We went through the routine of skin turning red, going to doctor's office, having them say to watch it for awhile, then returning when the "pimples" start popping up. They cut open the abscess and remove mostly the knots from the sutures, in my case. They have not lanced the whole length of my incision (yet), as they attack each "pimple" (abscess) as it comes out; however, over the course of 6 weeks, we are working our way slowly down the incision.

Instead of the saline soaked guaze you had, they have given us Iodoform packing strips to use twice per day. Maybe that is an "improvement" implemented sometime over the past 19 years.

I hope my screams have not been as loud as you had from your 5-week old son. What a terrible ordeal that must have been for you, and what a wonderful mother you were to endure it. There is almost nothing worse than hearing your child in that much pain. Bless you.

Deanne,

Sorry to hear that you and Brian had the same problem. Poor Brian seems to have had more than his fair share of bad experiences. Thanks for passing along your story. I am ecouraged that these conditions eventually go away.

 

[Lynlw]

Thank you so much for your message. You described my situation exactly, with the non-dissolving sutures. We went through the routine of skin turning red, going to doctor's office, having them say to watch it for awhile, then returning when the "pimples" start popping up. They cut open the abscess and remove mostly the knots from the sutures, in my case. They have not lanced the whole length of my incision (yet), as they attack each "pimple" (abscess) as it comes out; however, over the course of 6 weeks, we are working our way slowly down the incision.

Instead of the saline soaked guaze you had, they have given us Iodoform packing strips to use twice per day. Maybe that is an "improvement" implemented sometime over the past 19 years.

I hope my screams have not been as loud as you had from your 5-week old son. What a terrible ordeal that must have been for you, and what a wonderful mother you were to endure it. There is almost nothing worse than hearing your child in that much pain. Bless you.

Thank you, I have to say, it was a team effort w/ my DH, one of us had to hold him down and the other did the dressing. I was grateful that I knew Justin would never remember it. I google wet to dry dressing last night and one of the reasons they don't recomend it anymore, is even tho it worked well it is very painfull.
I'm sorry you are going thru this and can't even imagine how frustrating it must be as some are healing to find new abscesses. Especially since beside this everything is going well and you must be so ready just to be done with it all. I wonder if it is possible, somehow just to pll the rest of the knots out instead of waiting until they are a problem, altho I have know idea if they could even tell where the stitches are until they form the 'pimple'. Well we will just say prayers that there are no more problem areas and you can get on to enjoying life with your wife.
Maybe you already have this, but since the tape is causing problems too, could you ask about getting the tape that is for sensitive skin? We have a couple rlls of it and it seems like it is made out of paper not the thicker material and it isn't as "sticky" but works well, especially on parts of the body that don't bend alot like a chest. Lyn

 

[Bradley White]

I'm not sure if we are talking about the same thing or not, but I will let you know what I had. Over the years since my first surgery I have had 3 "uninfected cysts" underneath my scar. This is the term my doctor used, I am not sure if it is the correct term. For me, we decided to wait and see if they went awat on there own. Since they weren't very uncomfortable this seemed like a reasonable approach to me. Within a month or two all of them dissappeared. My cardio suggested that these probably had to do with some irritation caused by my sutures.

They were like small (maybe a centimeter in diameter) lumps directly underneath or slightly to the side of one of my main chest scar. The cardio said I would have to have them cut away if they didn't go away in a couple months but since they did it was no problem. Sorry I don't have any other advice to offer, but I think this may clear up on it's own. And you aren't the only one to have gone through this or something similar.

Great to hear about how well your recovery is going.

Best

Brad