Detachment and dislocation of thermoreactive clips from sternum in late postoperative period due to misuse.

Median sternotomy is the most common method of access to the heart and great vessels in cardiac surgical procedures. However, particularly in obese and diabetic patients, complications such as dehiscence, osteomyelitis, mediastinitis and superficial wound infection or fistula formation may be encountered. To overcome these complications, some alternative surgical techniques and surgical equipment are designed for sternal closure. 'Nitinol thermoreactive clips' is one of them. In this study, we report a patient with detachment of thermoreactive clips from sternum in the late postoperative period due to wrong measurement of distance between intercostal spaces.