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Are Infections Common During or After Heart Valve Surgery?

Written By: Adam Pick, Patient Advocate, Author & Website Founder
Page Last Updated: June 9, 2025

Earlier today, I received an email with a pretty interesting question that reads, "Do you have any statistics about heart valve operations and whether or not surgery infection is common?"

As always, I love questions that I have never heard before. This question about heart valve operations and surgery infection was definitely a new one.

That said, I am thinking back to all of the heart valve surgery patients that I interviewed during my research for my book. In all those discussions, there were one or two patients that experienced a post-surgery infection. Specifically, Mr. Giacoma experienced a surgery infection from his median sternotomy (chest-cracking) following his open heart valve replacement surgery. You can learn more about infections relating to the broken sternum by clicking here.

Other than that, my memory is drawing a blank. That said, my gut tells me that the incidence of surgery infection following a heart valve operation is relatively small.

However, after doing some research, I learned that my gut was very wrong.

According to a recent study from the University of Michigan Health, one in five older adults gets an infection up to six months after heart surgery — with women far more likely to develop one, according to studies led by Michigan Medicine.

Women had <60% greater odds of developing postoperative infections the three most common being urinary tract, pneumonia and sepsis.
Black patients also had higher rates of overall infection (28%) compared to white patients (19.2%).

"The findings highlight that patients are at risk for developing infections early and late after their cardiac surgical procedure," said Dr. Francis Pagani, co-author of the study.

I hope that helps answers the question about heart valve operation and surgery infection.

Written by Adam Pick - Patient & Website Founder

Adam Pick is a heart valve patient and author of The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery. In 2006, Adam founded HeartValveSurgery.com to educate and empower patients. This award-winning website has helped over 10 million people fight heart valve disease. Adam has been featured by the American Heart Association and Medical News Today.

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