Treatment of Acute Bacterial Endocarditis by Valve Excision and Replacement.

THE advent of a wide spectrum of bactericidal antibiotic agents has enabled physicians to treat many cases of bacterial endocarditis with a high likelihood of success. There remain, however, a significant number of patients with endocarditis in whom the infection is more resistant to antimicrobial therapy, valve destruction more rapid, and a satisfactory response to medical therapy sufficiently infrequent to warrant consideration of a new therapeutic approach. The purpose of this report is to describe a patient with bacterial endocarditis involving the aortic valve who failed to respond to antibiotics alone, but who has been cured by valve excision and replacement.