Treatment of infective endocarditis complicated by peripheral embolism

Abstract

Infective endocarditis still has high mortality and morbidity. Infective endocarditis usually affects the native valve and may lead to non-cardiac complications such as embolism, metastatic infection and septicemia due to the embolus of septic vegetations. Devel-opment of heart failure, systemic embolization, and perivalvular abscess are indications for emergency surgery. Complication rate of vegetations which are greater than 10 mm is more than 90% however, the complication rate of vegetations which are less than 10 mm is 48%. Medical treatment alone may not always be sufficient and may lead to more serious complications such as peripheral embolism. Here, we present a patient diagnosed with acute aortic valve infective endocarditis and left femoral artery embolism in the light of current literature.