Table 3 Microbial isolates from sternal wound (per‐protocol analysis).

No. of patients	Control group (n = 99)	Study group (n = 87)
With SWI	25	8
With positive growth	19	7
With multiple organisms	10	5
With Gram‐positive bacteria*	10†	4†
Staphylococcus aureus	4	2
Enterococcus faecalis	8	2
Number of Gram‐positive organisms resistant to cefuroxime	2	2
Number of Gram‐positive organisms resistant to rifampicin	4	1
Number of Gram‐positive organisms resistant to vancomycin	0	0
With Gram‐negative bacteria	15†	7†
Pseudomonas aeruginosa	2	3
Bacteroides fragilis	2	1
Enterobacteriaceae	14	7
Enterobacter cloacae	1	1
Escherichia coli	12	5
Proteus mirabilis	1	1
Klebsiella pneumoniae	0	2
Serratia marcescens	0	1
With other organisms
Candida albicans	1	0

SWI, sternal wound infection.

*Flucloxacillin was often used as the preferred treatment, blind, and may have contributed to the low number of isolates.

†Patients may have more than one organism.