[HSF] Endocarditis with splenic infarct

[Hgrmd at aol.com]

Nand,
  Did you consider repairing, rather than replacing the mitral  valve?  Over 
the past 10 years, I've been able to repair probably 50% of my  SBE cases.  As 
far as I can recall, I've never seen a recurrence.  If  the vegetation is 
confined to one segment of the valve, then radical debridement  and 
reconstruction using standard Carpentier techniques works well.  Of  course, if the 
infection is scattered in several segments, then replacement is  required.
Hal



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