Why the study?
Does early valvular replacement improve outcomes in patients with valvular destruction secondary to bacterial endocarditis?
Does early valvular replacement improve outcomes in patients with valvular destruction secondary to bacterial endocarditis?
Early valvular replacement can be successfully performed in patients with bacterial endocarditis complicated by hemodynamic collapse or drug resistance.
May support early valve replacement in select endocarditis cases with instability or resistance; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
Three patients with valvular destruction secondary to bacterial endocarditis were treated by early valvular replacement. Operative intervention prior to completion of the conventional prolonged course of antibiotic therapy was necessitated by hemodynamic collapse in two patients and by drug resistance in a third patient. Six weeks after valve replacement in the patient in case 1, he successfully underwent left pneumonectomy for carcinoma of the lung. Following surgery, the three patients are doing well, with no evidence of infection or congestive heart failure.
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Benson R. Wilcox (1967) studied this question.
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