Aortic valve endocarditis in a transplanted heart after urethral instrumentation.

Abstract

Endocarditis represents a rare but life-threatening condition after heart transplantation. Recent American Heart Association guidelines recognize cardiac transplant patients with valvulopathy as high risk for endocarditis, but acknowledge that there were not sufficient data to make a recommendation for prophylaxis. Also, genitourinary procedures were no longer considered a risk factor for endocarditis in the most recent guidelines. We present a patient who acquired aortic valve endocarditis of the intact valve, after multiple urethral instrumentation 2 years after heart transplantation, who was successfully treated by aortic valve replacement and prolonged antibiotic therapy.