[HSF] Possible infected Freestyle

[Hgrmd at aol.com]

Ani,
  You are even more binary and concrete than yours truly!!   Though I'm the 
first to profess that I'm not an aortic expert, I have seen and  read of 
instances where conservative therapy has worked well for mediastinal  infections in 
the presence of aortic grafts.  Coselli and others have  written for years 
about treating some of these cases with omentum and life long  antibiotics. As 
long as the patient is closely watched, the risk of waiting is  not that great.  
Also, exchanging a Free Style for a homograft in an 80 yo  by a new surgeon 
carries a hell of a lot of risk no matter how you slice  it.
Hal



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