Hemorrhoids Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Hemorrhoids, including details on treatment, internal, external, surgery.

Infective endocarditis in a hancock bioprosthetic heart valve.

Butany JW, Naseemuddin A, Nair V, Borger MA, Daniel L

Department of Pathology, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. jagdish.butany@uhn.on.ca

Contemporary prosthetic heart valves (PHV) are a good mode of treatment of valvular heart disease. They last for an average of 5 to 10 years and bioprostheses fail due to the tissue degeneration. Infective endocarditis of the prosthetic valve is a relatively rare complication occurring in 0.5% to 1% of cases per year, and its late occurrence is even less common. Patients with PHV who undergo interventional or surgical procedures under adequate antibiotic coverage, infective endocarditis should not occur. We present a case of a 54-year-old woman who developed infective endocarditis on a porcine bioprosthesis, implanted 15 years earlier. The microorganism was Streptococcus viridans and the vegetations were surprisingly large and led to prosthesis obstruction.

Published 29 June 2005 in J Card Surg, 20(4): 389-92.
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