Aortic Pericardial Heterograft Obstruction from Endocarditis

Excerpt

The usual hemodynamic consequence of bacterial endocarditis is valvular regurgitation. The development of valvular stenosis from endocarditis on native valves has been rarely reported (1, 2). Findings of a pathologic study by Ferrans and associates (3) of porcine heterograft endocarditis have suggested that prosthetic valve stenosis caused by infected vegetations may be relatively common. Clinical hemodynamic obstruction without valvular regurgitation has not been documented with tissue valve endocarditis and has never been reported with pericardial heterograft endocarditis. We report a case of bovine pericardial heterograft endocarditis leading to severe valvular obstruction with no regurgitation.

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