Vitamin D status and post sternotomy bone healing; a prospective radiologic observational study

Abstract

Sternotomy is the most common incision technique used in cardiac surgery. Some complications due to this method, which requires a large bone incision, increase morbidity and mortality. Vitamin D deficiency is an important health problem that can be observed in all age groups in the society. In this study, we aimed to radiologically examine the relationship between vitamin D level and bone healing after sternotomy.120 patients who underwent sternotomy for coronary artery bypass surgery under elective conditions between 2019-2020 were included in our study. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to their pre-operative 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, with 40 patients in each group. Bone healing was evaluated with computed tomography at 3 and 6 months following the operation.Preoperative demographic data, laboratory and clinical results, except for vitamin D levels, were similar in all patients. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of clinical bone healing in the first 3 months. However, it was observed that bone healing was weaker in patients with low vitamin D on radiological imaging. On the 6th month images, it was found that the differences in the level of bone tissue healing decreased in all patient groups.Vitamin D is a steroid-structured vitamin that plays important roles in many physiological mechanisms, especially bone healing. The results of our study showed that; In coronary bypass operations performed by sternotomy, there is a significant relationship between bone healing and vitamin D level, especially in the first 3 months. Pre-operative detection of vitamin D deficiency may help reduce sternotomy-related complications, especially in patient groups in which additional risk factors such as obesity and diabetes mellitus are identified. [Med-Science 2021; 10(2.000): 374-9]

Keywords

• vitamin d
• sternotomy
• osteotomy
• coronary artery bypass
• tomography