Diabetes mellitus and cardiothoracic surgical site infections

Persons afflicted with diabetes mellitus compose over one fourth of patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery and create a particular challenge to surgical and critical care practitioners. This paper reviews the impact of diabetes mellitus on cardiothoracic surgical site infection (SSI) risk, with specific attention to recent data regarding the role of perioperative hyperglycemia as well as the use of continuous insulin infusion for SSI risk reduction in the cardiothoracic surgical population.