Sternal wound closure in the current era: the need of a tailored approach.

The choice among the sternal closure techniques should be mainly inspired and tailored on the patient's characteristics, and correct judgement and experience play a pivotal role. A decisional algorithm has been proposed as an attempt to overcome the absence of specific guidelines and to guide the operative approach. This operative approach might be used also in non-cardiac procedure in which median sternotomy is required, such as in case of thoracic surgery.