Culture-negative endocarditis

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Culture-negative endocarditis

Endocarditis (culture-negative)

Endocarditis is treated with intravenous antibiotics or antifungal medications for a prolonged time (usually at least 6 weeks). Some patients may require heart surgery.

Complications of endocarditis include:

• Congestive heart failure
• Perivalvular abscesses
• Intracardiac fistulae (abnormal connections within the heart)
• Infected emboli (infected blood clots that can travel through the blood and cause obstructed blood vessels and strokes)

All these complications usually require surgery, either to remove vegetations or abscesses, to repair the valves, or to replace them with artificial valves.

Review Date: 05/26/2006
Reviewed By: Monica Gandhi MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, UCSF, San Francisco, CA. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.