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Query: UMLS:C0014118 (endocarditis)
 15,629 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Infective endocarditis is the most common condition predisposing a patient to splenic abscess, and the conditions of 37 such patients are reviewed herein. Streptococci accounted for 18 abscesses, with six containing enterococci; 12 other contained staphylococci. Symptoms suggesting splenic abscess include abdominal distention, hiccups, and pain in the left flank, abdomen, and shoulder. Physical signs include recurrent or persistent fever and abdominal tenderness, with splenomegaly often inapparent. The most frequent finding on x-ray film is pleural effusion on the left side. Seventeen patients not undergoing splenectomy died; in these, the diagnosis of splenic abscess was established postmortem. Twenty patients underwent splenectomy, 19 of whom received antibiotics and survived; one patient who was not treated with antibiotics died. Physicians should suspect splenic abscess in patients with endocarditis, particularly those with staphylococcal or enterococcal endocarditis. Those patients with clinical evidence suggestive of splenic abscess should undergo specific diagnostic studies, and exploratory laparotomy may be necessary.
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PMID:Splenic abscess complicating infectious endocarditis. 667 35

The objective of our study was to assess the long-term outcome of patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis. We used a multicenter, prospective, observational study design. Six university teaching hospitals with high volume cardiothoracic surgery participated. Seventy-four patients with prosthetic valve endocarditis as defined by explicit, objective criteria were selected for participation. All patients were followed up prospectively for 1 year. Thirty-one percent and 69% had development of endocarditis within 60 days of valve insertion ("early") and after 60 days ("late"), respectively. The most common causes were Staphylococcus epidermidis (40%), Staphylococcus aureus (20%), streptococcal species (18%), and aerobic gram-negative bacilli (11%). Physical signs of endocarditis (new or changing murmur, stigmata, emboli) were seen in 58%. At 6 months and 12 months, mortality was 46% and 47%, respectively. Surgical replacement of the infected valve led to significantly lower mortality (23%) as compared with medical therapy alone (56%), as assessed by both univariate and multivariate analyses (p < 0.05). Improved outcome was seen for the surgical group even when controlling for severity of illness at time of diagnosis. From these findings we conclude that accurate assessment of outcome in prosthetic valve endocarditis requires long-term follow-up of at least 6 months following diagnosis. Surgical therapy warrants greater scrutiny; evaluation in controlled clinical trials is appropriate.
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PMID:Prosthetic valve endocarditis: superiority of surgical valve replacement versus medical therapy only. 794 53