Table 1.

Definition of sternal wound complications (El Oakley and Wright, 1996) (13)

Complication	Definition	Subtypes
Mediastinal dehiscence	Median sternotomy wound breakdown in the absence of clinical or microbiological evidence of infection
Mediastinal wound infection	Clinical or microbiological evidence of infected presternal tissue and sternal osteomyelitis, with or without mediastinal sepsis and with or without unstable sternum	Superficial wound infection: infection confined to the subcutaneous tissue
		Deep wound infection – mediastinitis: wound infection associated with sternal osteomyelitis with or without infected retrosternal space