Neonatal mitral valve endocarditis: diagnosis and successful management

Although still considered to be a rare and mostly fatal illness, the reported incidence of neonatal bacterial endocarditis has increased during the past decade. This parallels the establishment of intensive supportive management of severely ill newborns with multiple medical problems. An extremely difficult diagnostic problem with protean manifestations, the presence of neonatal endocarditis should be vigorously sought in the at risk neonate. The authors report the first known case in America of successfully diagnosed and treated neonatal endocarditis involving the mitral valve.