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The Treatment of Septicemia in Pacemaker Patients
Author(s) -
BÖHM ÁDÁM,
BÁNYAI FERENC,
PRÉDA ISTVÁN,
ZÁMOLYI KÁROLY
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
pacing and clinical electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.686
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1540-8159
pISSN - 0147-8389
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8159.1996.tb03420.x
Subject(s) - medicine , endocarditis , staphylococcus epidermidis , staphylococcus aureus , cardiology , surgery , biology , bacteria , genetics
The authors analyzed the data of seven patients who had undergone open heart surgery because of pacemaker endocarditis in the past 4 years. Repeated surgical interventions on the pacemaker system were found to be the most common predisposing factors. Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis were the most common causative organisms. Two‐dimensional echocardiography was important in the diagnosis of cases with atypical clinical picture and negative blood cultures. We concluded that: (1) any pacemaker patient with fever should be considered to have a pacemaker endocarditis; (2) all of these patients should be examined by two‐dimenensional echocardiography; and (3) the total removal of the infected hardware seems to be the only way to achieve complete recovery.