[A case report of surgical treatment of prosthetic valve endocarditis in tricuspid position]

Abstract

A case of right sided prosthetic valve endocarditis in tricuspid position was presented. This 38-year-old male underwent tricuspid valve replacement (TVR) with SJM (31 mm) prosthetic valve because of tricuspid valve endocarditis caused by staphylococcus epidermidis five years ago. At the beginning of this year, 1989, he was admitted with complain of high fever and bloody sputa. Doppler color imaging showed prosthetic valve was stenotic whose pressure gradient was 16 mmHg in peak pressure gradient, but vegetation was not identified. Following with gastrectomy perhaps due to AGML, re-TVR was done with Carpentier-Edwards vale (31 mm). He was discharged without any problems. It seems important to determine the timing of re-operation before leading any complications.