cardiothoracic surgery

my husband is 66,has had bypass surgery in '05 and recently he took a very hard fall.After getting a ct scan and chest xrays,the dr determined he had separation of the sternum at the midline,and multiple broken wires that hold sternum together,How invasive is surgery to repair this? What are the sucess rates? He is looking for a thoracic surgeon now.We have a pending lawsuit,because my husbands fall was due to gross neglegance. Thank-you!! signed,very concerned wife

[cindy707]

On a personal level i think that this is a very invasive and diffficult surgery because basically what has happened in a nut shell is that when he took the fall the sternum in the center of the body broke in half or seperated from the force.  As far as success rates go you usually don't see this happen to many people except in extreme circumstances and basically what they will be doing is wiring the center of his body which holds his rib cage in place back together.  This really isn't my forte and i would look onto the Medhelp site above by scrolling up to your screen and look for the ortho site or post on the "ask a doctor" site...if it were my husband i probably wouldn't worry about the surgery itself however i can tell you now that the recovery is going to be a bear for both of you for quite some time...sorry that this has happened to your family....