Septic endocarditis and indwelling pulmonary artery catheters.

A pulmonary artery catheter removed from a man with idiopathic cardiomyopathy yielded Staphylococcus aureus in culture, as did blood and sputum. Septic endocarditis of the right side of the heart was found at autopsy. A review of 438 autopsy reports in which an indwelling pulmonary catheter had been used and of another 493 reports preceding its use at our medical center suggests no association between the use of indwelling catheters in the right side of the heart and endocarditis in the left, although there is a risk of thrombotic endocardial vegetation formation in the right side of the heart, with possible infection or embolization.