Staphylococcal Endocarditis after Mitral Valvulotomy

Abstract

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 . . .