Emergency aortic valve replacement in active endocarditis with the Björk-Shiley tilting disc valve prosthesis.

Because of severe and intractable heart failure in three patients with infective endocarditis, an emergency replacement of the aortic valve with a Björk-Shiley prosthesis was carried out. Heart failure, which is the most common cause of death in infective endocarditis, was in these cases due to acute aortic regurgitation caused by perforation and other damage of the aortic valve. One patient died in the early postoperative period because of myocardial damage and respiratory insufficiency. The other two survived and are in relatively good condition after follow-up periods of 2 years and 6 months, respectively. The emergency replacement of incompetent valves may be a lifesaving procedure during the course of active endocarditis.