Endocarditis due to enteric bacilli other than Salmonellae: case reports and literature review

The clinical and pathological findings in two recent patients with non-salmonella enterobacterial endocarditis are described, and those of 42 patients in the literature are summarized. Most of the patients acquired their endocarditis secondary to urinary tract infection and had an acute clinical course characterized by high fever and chills. Thirty-two of these patients died, and all except one had a postmortem examination. The most frequent pathological finding was the occurrence of very large vegetations which caused relatively little destruction of the underlying valve. Prompt diagnosis and antibiotic therapy chosen on the basis of bactericidal as well as bacteriostatic activity against the individual bacterium may improve the prognosis in this disease. Results of tricuspid and pulmonic valvulectomies for bacteriologic failure in pseudomonas and in a few cases of enterobacterial endocarditis appear to warrant a surgical approach in patients with right-sided enterobacterial endocarditis who fail to respond to vigorous medical therapy.