PURPOSE It has been reported that surgical treatment for prosthetic valve endocarditis complicated by destruction of the aortic annulus is associated with high mortality and morbidity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of our surgical strategy for this situation. METHODS Between October 2003 and April 2009, eight patients (mean age 68.6 years) with prosthetic valve endocardit...

recently, there have been more reports of cardiac valve infections due to the increasing number of intravenous (iv) drug abusers and chronic renal failure patients. among cardiac valves, tricuspid valve is most commonly affected in the course of endocarditis. appropriate management of these patients is a challenging and controversial issue in the field of cardiac surgery. treatment options in s...

Two cases of Bartonella prosthetic valve endocarditis were cured when treated for 2 weeks with gentamicin and 3 months with doxycycline. Clinical cure correlated with decreased Bartonella antibody titers. This report suggests a strategy to monitor, treat, and cure Bartonella prosthetic valve endocarditis.

this report presents a case of left radial artery pseudoaneurysm developing at the previous site of invasive monitoring. the patient had prosthetic mitral valve replacement one month earlier, and anti-coagulation therapy had started on the first post-operative day. the patient’s radial artery aneurysm with a 4-centimeter diameter was resected and the radial artery was ligated.

Rheumatic valve disease, a consequence of acute rheumatic fever, remains endemic in developing countries in the sub-Saharan region where it is the leading cause of heart failure and cardiovascular death, involving predominantly a young population. The involvement of the mitral valve is pathognomonic and mitral surgery has become the lone therapeutic option for the majority of these patients. Ho...

from may 1994 to december 1996 thirty patients received viable fresh aortic homografts. mean age was 55 years (13 to 70), male to female ratio was 2/1, 24 operations were elective whereas 6 were semiurgent. predominant lesions were aortic stenosis or regurgitation in lb patients, aortic valve endocarditis in 10, prosthetic valve dysfunction in 3, and aortic root pathology in one patient. from t...

The patient was a 61-year-old female. She underwent mitral valve replacement (MVR) with a 27 mm Carbomedics valve and tricuspid valve annuloplasty using the DeVega method in September 1997. She has received anticoagulant therapy by aspirin and warfarin in a nearby hospital. Because of aggravating dyspnea and chest pain after an acute upper respiratory inflammation, she was transferred to our ho...