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Inverse paradoxical embolism in a patient on chronic hemodialysis with aortic bacterial endocarditis
J L Rocha1, F González-Roncero, R López-Hidalgo
1Hospital Universitario "Virgen del Rocío", Sevilla, Spain. jrochac@medynet.com
We present a 45-year-old patient on chronic hemodialysis who suffered aortic endocarditis by Staphylococcus haemolyticus after bacteremia associated with a venous catheter, which was used temporarily during the maturing phase of a Cimino-Brescia arteriovenous fistula in the left forearm. Three weeks after starting antibiotic therapy, the patient suffered a septic pulmonary embolism. The catheter had been removed 4 weeks before the embolism. Thrombophlebitis of lower limbs, infection or thrombosis of the vascular access, and the involvement of right-sided cardiac structures were all discarded. We assumed that the pulmonary episode was probably a consequence of the paradoxical passage of embolic material, detached from the aortic valve, from arterial to venous circulation through the arteriovenous fistula.
We present a 45-year-old patient on chronic hemodialysis who suffered aortic endocarditis by Staphylococcus haemolyticus after bacteremia associated with a venous catheter, which was used temporarily during the maturing phase of a Cimino-Brescia arteriovenous fistula in the left forearm. Three weeks after starting antibiotic therapy, the patient suffered a septic pulmonary embolism. The catheter had been removed 4 weeks before the embolism. Thrombophlebitis of lower limbs, infection or thrombosis of the vascular access, and the involvement of right-sided cardiac structures were all discarded. We assumed that the pulmonary episode was probably a consequence of the paradoxical passage of embolic material, detached from the aortic valve, from arterial to venous circulation through the arteriovenous fistula.