Staphylococcal Endocarditis after Mitral Valvulotomy

BACTERIAL endocarditis after cardiac surgery has been previously reported in 6 patients.1 2 3 4 5 Four had undergone mitral valvulotomy, the fifth had a transventricular commissurotomy for aortic stenosis, and the sixth had been operated on for pulmonic stenosis. In 2 of these cases, the organism proved to be an antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus, and the patients succumbed to the infection.1 , 2 In a third patient, whose blood culture had yielded a staphylococcus, large doses of penicillin, sulfisoxazole and chloramphenicol resulted in recovery.3 Pseudomonas aeruginosa was recovered from the blood and from the vegetations on the heart valves in the fourth case, reported in England by . . .