A Fatal Case of Staphylococcus capitis Endocarditis in a Patient With Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) Vol. 15; no. 2; p. e35333
• Main Authors: Esmail, Rojin, Ober, Curtis, Dunn, Chelsea, Casadesus, Damian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Cureus Inc 22-02-2023; Cureus
• Subjects: Abscesses; Antibiotics; Aortic stenosis; Biofilms; Cardiology; Dementia; Disease prevention; Dyspnea; Endocarditis; Heart failure; Hemodialysis; Infectious Disease; Internal Medicine; Intubation; Kidney diseases; Medical equipment; Medical imaging; Patients; Prostheses; Ultrasonic imaging; aortic stenosis; staphylococcus capitis; transcatheter aortic valve replacement; endocarditis; aortic valve replacement in chronic kidney disease; end stage renal disease (esrd); tavr
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.35333

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has evolved to become a standard management modality for high-risk, moderate, and even low-risk patients with symptomatic aortic stenosis. Infective endocarditis (IE) after a TAVR is rare and difficult to diagnose. Typical sonographic characteristics observed with an echocardiogram in native valve endocarditis may not be present in TAVR-IE cases. Enterococcal species are identified to be the most frequent causative agents. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) can infrequently lead to a fatal course of endocarditis in the TAVR population. There are only seven previously reported cases of 
 (
) prosthetic valve endocarditis noted in the literature. Here we present a man in his 60s who presented to our facility for evaluation of fever and shortness of breath. He was subsequently diagnosed with
TAVR-IE. He was not considered a surgical candidate and was treated medically for IE with a fatal outcome.