A male intravenous drug abuser who was infected with hepatitis B and C, presented with a slowly progressive hemiplegia. Contrast enhanced computerized tomography of the head showed a solitary ring-enhanced mass with surrounding edema. Clinically brain tumor was suspected but a brain biopsy confirmed cerebral toxoplasmosis. An HIV test was not considered until the result of brain biopsy. He also...

Infections caused by Ewingella americana have been rarely reported in the literature. Most of the cases that have been reported were among the immunocompromised patients. We report a case of E. americana causing osteomyelitis and septic arthritis of the shoulder joint in a previous intravenous drug abuser. The causative pathogen was identified by synovial fluid analysis and culture.

Recently, there have been more reports of cardiac valve infections due to the increasing number of intravenous (IV) drug abusers and chronic renal failure patients. Among cardiac valves, tricuspid valve is most commonly affected in the course of endocarditis. Appropriate management of these patients is a challenging and controversial issue in the field of cardiac surgery. Treatment options in s...

infective endocarditis is a serious complication of intravenous (iv) drug abuse, with a reported mortality of 5 to 10%. a 21-year-old man, who was an intravenous drug abuser, presented with fever and dyspnea. transthoracic echocardiography showed a highly mobile, large vegetation on the anterior leaflet of the tricuspid valve. despite antibiotic therapy for ten days, the patient remained febril...

Arterial complications from inadvertent arterial puncture in intravenous drug abusers are well recognised. Most reports describe injury to the femoral artery with occasional reports of brachial and radial artery injury. A case of subclavian artery injury is described in this paper, and the pathophysiology and treatment of intraarterial drug injection discussed.