Infected Valves

[Newfie]

Hi Everyone. I am new to this site. Had AVR on Jan.2 this year. Was doing well with the help of all the info on this site until I developed a fever this past Sunday. Fever goes above 38 but stays around 37.7 - 38 for the most part. Questionable valve infection - blood cultures were done today with results expected in 48 hours. Any experience out there with valve infections? How was it treated? How long was treatment? IV antibiotics or pill form? Was the infection cleared up? What symptoms did you have? Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

[Gail in Ca]

Hopefully, you don't have an infection of your valves. It almost always leads to surgery to replace the valve.
I had staph lugdunensis and was treated with IV vancomycin, oral rifampin, IV gentimycin for a week in the hospital. I was sent home and had another fever of 101 a couple of days after I got home. I was hospitalized again and blood cultures came up positive again. I was changed to IV nafcillin, and oral rifampin for 6 weeks.
After treatment, my hematacrit was still low, and it was determined that I would need to have another OHS to change out my mechanical aortic valve, my old graft from '89, and my mitral also would be looked at and repaired if possible. My infection has never come back.

 

[Lynlw]

why are they expecting infection on your valves? Who orderred the blood work? Was it someone from cardiology or heart surgery? If so did they do any tests like an echo mri or ct scan to get a good look ar your heart and valves? At different times Justin had an infection in his blood and heart , bacterial endocarditis and after one of his heart surgeirs he had an infection in his sternum bone and under it. Both times he was immeadiately put in the hospital and before the bloodwork was back he was already started on antibiotics, I hope it isn't an infection on your valves, but the good part is usually if caught early they can start taking care of it.

WAS A FEVER THE ONLY SIGN sorry how does your incision look? any draining? Let us know how things go

 

[ManiSham]

hi

I was also wondering the same, why are the doctors assuming it's an infection in your valve? I had bacterial endocarditis which is infection in blood and heart, they treated me with various IV medication because it was detected a bit late. I think if it's early stages you can treat it with oral medicines.
My symptoms were very high fever that fluctuates, night sweats, lack of appetite and fatigue. As the first step my blood cultures were tested too but since you have already done an AVR I think they need to do an echo to see whether there is an infection (vegetation) in your heart.

Hopefully there's no valve infection (even if it is there, don't worry it can be treated)

keep us posted
take care.

 

[epstns]

They may just be being cautious. When I was having a tough time in the first month or two of recovery, my docs did all the blood cultures to rule out endocarditis. They also did an echo and kept me in the hospital for a couple of days, just to watch. In my case, it turned out to be extreme digestive issues, probably caused by all the meds during and after surgery. The doc's said that they would rather do the tests soon than find out later that they should have.

 

[Newfie]

Thank you for the quick replies. Am going to finish my coffee and then phone the surgeon's office. Hopefully there will be an echo/ct scan booked and she will see me shortly thereafter. In response to some of the questions asked, valve infection was presumed but not confirmed. There were no other problems. Only symptom was fever and it was fluctuating. Incision looks great. Everything else was normal. So on to face the day and sort this out and start treatment as soon as possible if needed.

 

[Paleowoman]

Soon after heart surgery I got a fever which was always around 37.7 to 38 too. At first they did nothing but then after four days of this (kept saying fever immedicately after surgery was normal) they did a blood culture but also looked elsewhere for infection and, onthe fifth day of fever found I had urinary tract infection. Blood cultures were normal. They didn't start treating me with antibiotics till the test result showing UTI came back - mind you, I was still in hospital. I know I was petrified that they would find endocarditis especially as I had no symptoms of UTI or endocarditis other than the fever. Hope you find the cause of your infection and that it isn't as feared……but very good they are testing you now.

 

[clay_from_nj]

All those germs in hospitals. Last place you want to be if you want to avoid infection.

 

[ski girl]

I had acute endocarditis (fever about 40) and wasn't expected to live to, or through, my emergency AVR redo surgery. While they were trying to find where my infection was I was getting antibiotics 4x a day through a PICC line and the infection was confirmed via a TEE as that shows the aortic valve the best.

Fingers crossed you aren't this sick, if you're not in the hospital with medical staff flapping around and watching you like a hawk, that's good news. There are people on here who have had low-grade BE and don't have to have redo surgery, don't freak out at this point!