Haemophilus aphrophilus endocarditis after tongue piercing

Abstract

Piercing invades subcutaneous areas and has a high potential for infectious complications. The number of case reports of endocarditis associated with piercing is increasing. We studied a 25-year-old man with a pierced tongue, who arrived at Memorial Health University Medical Center with fever, chills, rigors, and shortness of breath of 6 days' duration and had an aortic valvuloplasty for correction of congenital aortic stenosis.

Figure

The tongue pierce of the man from the case study. The stud was bispherical metal inserted without anesthesia or preparation. Although the stud was removable, the patient had not removed it. The area around insertion was clean with no local sign of infection when the stud was removed; the tongue was not inflamed or painful.