WINNIPEG — Thousands of patients who received open heart surgery in Winnipeg are being warned about a possible infection risk linked to their surgery.
St. Boniface Hospital is sending letters to 4,300 adult patients after a device used to heat and cool blood during open heart surgery was linked to a bacterial infection, known as non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM).
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The hospital is contacting any patient who had surgery since 2012.
Health officials say NTM only rarely causes complications and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States puts the risk at less than one percent.
So far no Manitoba patient has been found to be infected.
Health officials have asked anyone who’s had open heart surgery to contact their doctor if they’re experiencing night sweats, muscle aches, weight loss, fatigue, unexplained fever; and redness,heat or pus around the sternal surgical incision.
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