Equipment tied to Quebec health scare used at Ottawa Heart Institute
Ottawa Heart Institute steps up cleaning regimen to lower infection risk
Equipment used in operating rooms at the centre of a Quebec health scare is also being used in Ottawa, according to officials at the Ottawa Heart Institute.
Six Quebec hospitals are working to contact more than 23,000 patients who have had open heart surgery since 2011 about a potential risk of infection.
The risk stems from problems cleaning a contaminated piece of operating room equipment called the the Sorin 3T Heater-Cooler that's essential in open heart surgery.
- 6 Quebec hospitals warn heart surgery patients of potential infection risk
- Montreal Heart Institute alerts patients of potential infection risk
"I think the most frustrating thing is for the patients," said Heather Sherrard, executive vice-president for clinical operations at the Ottawa Heart Institute.
"This is a relatively rare occurrence. It's a bacteria that normally exists."
Also known as the Stockert 3T, the Sorin 3T Heater-Cooler is used during open heart surgery to keep a patient's body at exactly the right temperature.
The Ottawa Heart Institute owns five of the machines. Two are on loan from the manufacturer as the heart institute has sent two of its heater-coolers to the factory in Germany for deep cleaning.
Without the machines, the hospital would be unable to do four procedures a day, Sherrard said.
She said the hospital has also stepped up its own cleaning regimen.
Risk of infection low
The Montreal Heart Institute announced last week that two patients out of more than 8,000 who underwent cardiac surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass had been diagnosed with a related infection.
According to the institute, their heater-cooler system was contaminated with Mycobacterium chimaera during its manufacturing in Germany.
In the U.S., the contamination has been tied to at least 28 cases of bacterial infection.
The Ottawa Heart Institute has called more than 4,500 patients over the past four years as part of its regular care process, Sherrard said, and has "no knowledge of any positive culture of the bacterium."
Symptoms of the infection include night sweats, muscle aches, weight loss, fatigue and unexplained fever. It's generally not fatal, but it is dangerous for people already in a weakened state after surgery.
According to Radio-Canada, the machines are still in use in the majority of hospitals in both Canada and the United States due to a supply problem.