Tricuspid Valve Endocarditis Complicated Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) before an Operation

(Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hiroshima City Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan)

Daisuke Futagami Hideo Yoshida Hironori Ebishima
Nobuyuki Tokunaga Keiji Yunoki Kunikazu Hisamochi
Osamu Oba
Right-sided infective endocarditis (IE) accounts for 5% to 10% of all IE. Compared with left-sided IE, antibiotic treatment is effective in about 70% of cases. The timing of surgical treatment for right-sided IE is therefor controversial. A 26-year-old woman had suffered from tricuspid valve endocarditis with DIC. There was no evidence of any previous cardiac event or dental treatment. Echocardiography showed a large vegetation attached to the anterior leaflet of tricuspid valve with moderate tricuspid regurgitation. We removed the vegetation with a part of the anterior leaflet and performed tricuspid valvuloplasty and annuloplasty. The patient had an uneventful postoperative course and received intravenous antibiotic treatment for a further 4 weeks.
@Jpn. J. Cardiovasc. Surg. 36: 85-87 (2007)