Case report
Infective endocarditis caused by Salmonella enteritidis in a dialysis patient: a case report and literature review
- † Equal contributors
1 Department of Nephrology, Division of Internal Medicine, St. Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
2 Department of Infectious Disease, Division of Internal Medicine, St. Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
BMC Infectious Diseases 2009, 9:161 doi:10.1186/1471-2334-9-161
Published: 29 September 2009Abstract
Background
Infective endocarditis is significantly more common in haemodialysis patients as compared with the general population, the causative pathogen is generally Staphylococcus aureus; there have been no previously reported cases of infective endocarditis caused by a Salmonella species in haemodialysis patients.
Case Presentation
We report the case of a 68 year-old woman on haemodialysis who developed infective endocarditis as a result of Salmonella enteritidis. Although we treated the patient with ceftriaxone combined with ciprofloxacin, infective endocarditis was not detected early enough and unfortunately developed into cerebral septic emboli, which ultimately resulted in death.
Conclusion
Although there are several reports that Salmonella endocarditis without cardiac failure can be successfully treated with antibiotics alone, early surgical intervention is essential for some cases to prevent life-threatening complications. Transesophageal echocardiography should be performed in any patient with high clinical suspicion of infective endocarditis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case-report of Salmonella endocarditis in a haemodialysis patient.
