SRHS is notifying patients who had open-heart surgery at one of its four hospitals between 2012 and 2016 because the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration have linked heater-cooler devices used during those surgeries to bacterial infections.
SRHS is also replacing all of the at-risk heater-cooler devices.
According to the CDC, Stöckert 3T heater-cooler devices, made by LivaNova, appear to have been contaminated during manufacturing and are putting patients at risk for nontuberculous mycobacterium, or NTM, infections, which can be life-threatening.
This is the second South Carolina health system to report this week they were notifying at-risk patients: Charleston-based Medical University of South Carolina announced earlier it was warning about 3,000 patients of the device-associated infection risk.
Several other hospitals across the nation are also issuing similar warnings. The CDC estimates the contaminated heater-coolers are used in about 60 percent of bypass procedures in the U.S. annually.
More articles on patient safety:
3k patients of MUSC Health warned of heater-cooler-related infection risks
7 hospitals notifying patients of heater-cooler infection risks
4 Indiana health systems warn 8,000+ patients of infection risks
