Strategy to track and combat deep sternal wound infection caused by Mycobacterium farcinogenes

We present the first reported case of a patient who developed a postoperative sternal wound infection due to Mycobacterium farcinogenes. The microbe is a rapid grower suggestive of atypical mycobacterium, and the principal causative agent of bovine farcy. M. farcinogenes is an uncommon cause of human disease and only a few cases have been described to date [ [1] Al Farsi F. Al Adawi B. Ba Tahir H. Al Mutani M. Adikaram C. Al Siyabi T. et al. Mycobacterium farcinogenes osteomyelitis of the proximal tibia: a case report. IDCases. 2021; 25e01194 Crossref PubMed Scopus (5) Google Scholar ]. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a sternal wound infection caused by M. farcinogenes. On 4th March 2021, a 69-year-old male patient underwent a median sternotomy for a coronary artery bypass graft. Subsequently, he became febrile (38.1 °C) and complained of sternal pain on postoperative day 24. The patient developed a deep sternal wound infection (DSWI) diagnosed by surgeons according to published criteria [ [2] Chen C. Gao Y. Zhao D. Ma Z. Su Y. Mo R. Deep sternal wound infection and pectoralis major muscle flap reconstruction: a single-center 20-year retrospective study. Front Surg. 2022; 9870044 Google Scholar ]. The simplified timeline for DSWI history of this patient is shown in Figure 1.