Treatment of prosthetic valve endocarditis by aortic valve neocuspidization using bovine pericardium.

A 78-year-old man who had undergone aortic valve and ascending aorta replacements presented with fever and was referred to our hospital. Blood culture revealed Gram-positive cocci, thus antibiotic therapy was started. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed fresh cerebral infarction without cerebral haemorrhage or mycotic aneurysm. Transoesophageal echocardiogram revealed a vegetation that was attached to the right coronary cusp. The patient underwent successful aortic valve neocuspidization using glutaraldehyde-treated bovine pericardium. The postoperative course was uneventful with intravenous antibiotics administered for 6 weeks after confirming a negative blood culture, and no cardiac events occurred on follow-up by transthoracic echocardiogram 14 months postoperatively.