Extracranial mycotic aneurysms in infective endocarditis.

Nine of 217 (4.15%) patients with infective endocarditis who were followed from October 1978 to February 1984 had extracranial mycotic aneurysms (MA). Age range of patients was 6-43 years (mean of 24.8 years) and 7 were male. Etiologic agents were Streptococcus viridans (3 cases), Staphylococcus aureus (2 cases), Staphylococcus epidermidis (1 case), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (1 case). Two patients had negative blood cultures. The MA involved the arteries of the limbs (5 cases), thoracic (3 cases), and abdominal (1 case) arteries. The diagnosis was made by means of physical examination (5 cases), chest roentgenogram (2 cases), ultrasound examination (1 case), and aortography (1 case), at hospital admission (2 cases), early or before antibiotic therapy (2 cases), and from two days to six months after finishing antibiotic therapy (5 cases). All but one patient were operated upon due to MA; bleeding occurred in three cases; surgery was an emergency procedure in one case and performed from 8 to 58 days after the diagnosis of the MA in the others. Signs of infection at surgery were found in one case. In the others, further antibiotic therapy was not administered. There were no limb losses in the peripheral MA. Four patients received surgical treatment for endocarditis. There was one in-hospital death and another one 6 months later due to heart failure.