Salmonella infections of the abdominal aorta.

Endovascular infection of the atherosclerotic aorta is a substantial risk in patients older than 50 years of age who have bacteremia due to Salmonella. Until recently, the resultant salmonella aortitis was uniformly fatal. Two patients who were cured are described, and the characteristics of 10 other reported long-term survivors are given. This recent improvement in prognosis may have been related to (1) earlier diagnosis, (2) improved surgical management (axillofemoral bypass graft), and/or (3) increased use of bactericidal antibiotics. A change in bacteriology (fewer infections due to Salmonella cholerae-suis) was also seen in the more recent cases.