Endocarditis

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Heart, section through the middle

Heart, front view

Janeway lesion - close-up

Janeway lesion on the finger

Heart valves

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Endocarditis

Alternative Names:

Valve infection

Treatment:

Hospitalization is often required initially to administer intravenous antibiotics. Long-term antibiotic therapy is required to eradicate the bacteria from the heart chambers and valves.

Therapy is usually administered for 6 weeks. The chosen antibiotic must be specific for the organism causing the condition. This is determined by the blood culture and the sensitivity tests.

If heart failure develops as a result of damaged heart valves, or if the infection is breaking off in little pieces, resulting in a series of strokes, or there is evidence of organ damage, surgery to replace the affected heart valve is usually needed.

Expectations (prognosis):

Early treatment of endocarditis improves the chances of a good outcome.

Complications:

congestive heart failure if treatment is delayed
blood clots or an infected clots from the endocarditis that travel to the brain, kidneys, lungs, or abdomen, causing severe damage to and infection of these organs
arrhythmias (rapid or irregular heartbeat), such as atrial fibrillation
glomerulonephritis
severe heart valve damage
stroke
brain abscess
brain or nervous system changes
jaundice

Calling your health care provider:

Call your health care provider if you note the following symptoms during or after treatment:

weight loss without change in diet
blood in urine
chest pain
weakness
fatigue
numbness
fever

Review Date: 2/13/2006
Reviewed By: Monica Gandhi, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, UCSF, San Francisco, CA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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