Main complications in the immediate and late postoperative period of cardiac surgery

Abstract

Objective: To investigate, through the literature, whether complications after cardiac surgeries contribute to a poor prognosis. Methods: This is a literature review, with articles published between 2019 and 2024, in Portuguese, English and Spanish and with full text available. The guiding question was: What are the main postoperative complications of cardiac surgeries that contribute to an unfavorable clinical outcome?. The bibliographic search was carried out between September and October 2024 in the PubMed, SciELO and LILACS databases, using the following Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS), “Cardiac Surgeries”, “Postoperative Complications" and “Surgical Site Infection", all combined by the Boolean operator “AND”. Results: 12 articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected. They demonstrate that mediastinitis has behaved as a potent factor for poor prognosis, corroborating the increase in the death rate after cardiac surgeries. Final considerations: It can be considered that infectious complications in the postoperative period of cardiac surgeries deserve to be highlighted in nursing care, as they contribute to the patient having an unfavorable clinical outcome.