Listeria monocytogenes Endocarditis

Abstract

Endocarditis caused by Listeria nonocytogenes is rare. To our knowledge, only five patients have been reported. 1-4 The first patient reported by Hoeprich and Chernoff in 1955, 1 was a 42-year-old man with preexisting rheumatic heart disease in whom L monocytogenes endocarditis occurred after oral surgery. Cure was achieved with a four-week course of dihydrostreptomycin sulfate (1.0 gm/day) and erythromycin (2.4 gm/day). Thivolet et al 2 in 1959 reported a second patient in whom rheumatic heart disease was a predisposing factor, and a septic abortion was the source of the infective agent. Although the patient, a 35-year-old woman, subsequently died from bronchopneumonia, the septicemia and endocarditis responded favorably to dihydrostreptomycin and erythromycin. In 1961 Baker et al 3 reported two additional patients. The first was a 28-year-old white man admitted to the hospital with congestive heart failure and a history consistent with rheumatic heart disease. The immediate source of