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Endocarditis Research Paper

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VSD is a benign cardiac lesion the prognosis of which can be severely compromised with the occurrence of infective endocarditis. Surgical repair reduces the risk but does not entirely excludes it due to development of minor complications Right sided endocarditis is mainly a disease of intravenous drug abusers. It can also occur in nondrug addicts. The incidence of right sided infective endocarditis ranges from 5-10% in different series.. The majority of cases involve the tricuspid valve [1]. Isolated pulmonary valve endocarditis is rare. It is assumed that its rarity is due to the low pressure gradients within the right heart, the low prevalence of congenital malformations, the lower oxygen content of venous blood, and the differences in the …show more content…

Necropsy studies of patients with right-sided infective endocarditis and of opiate addicts have shown that vegetation was ten times more common in the tricuspid valve than in the pulmonary valve. The involved valves were nearly always anatomically normal before the onset of the cardiac infection.the survival of patients with congenital heart disease has increased the number and age of the population susceptible to infective endocarditis. Formerly, the patients most susceptible to infective endocarditis were those with tetralogy of Fallot, patent ductus arteriosus and ventricular septal defect. Congenital and acquired valve deformities play an important role in the pathogenesis of the infection and are responsible for the increase of infective endocarditis in adults [3]. Vegetations usually develop on the low-pressure side of the defect with endocardial trauma, and downstream from the site of the lesions.In patients with patent ductus arteriosus, the vegetations first develop at the pulmonary end of …show more content…

In our case, the patient responded to antibiotics and became asymptomatic within 4 weeks of appropriate antibiotics, even though echocardiography showed only mild decrease in the size of vegetation. As she was asymptomatic and inflammatory markerswere normalized, we did not consider the option of surgery and put the patient on regular follow up. A review of the publisheddata indicated that the role of surgery in isolated pulmonic valveendocarditis is unclear. Recurrent pulmonary emboli are not anindication for surgery, which is only needed if fever persists despite3 weeks of appropriate antibiotic treatment in the absence of a pulmonary abscess [6]. Surgical options include debridement ofthe infected area, vegetation excision with either valve preservation or valve repair or valve replacement

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