Spontaneous healing of mycotic aortic aneurysms

A 55-year-old man had excision of two mycotic infrarenal aortic aneurysms five months after a severe, prolonged bacteremia. At the time of aortic surgery he was asymptomatic and had sterile blood cultures, and the resected aortic specimen demonstrated no organism on bacteriologic or histologic examination. Though these lesions may sporadically heal, their generally inexorable progression toward rupture or disseminated sepsis, and their usual unresponsiveness to antibiotics, dictates their removal in all cases.