endocarditis. Report of cases and review of the literature.

INTRODUCTION

Infective endocarditis (IE) due to species is a rare disease representing about 1-2% of all IE cases and carries a high mortality rate. Given the rarity of the disease, there are no clear guidelines on the type and duration of antifungal therapy. Thus, long-term or even life-long antifungal treatment is commonly used.

CASE REPORT

We report two patients with prosthetic valve IE and persistent candidemia that failed conservative treatment and ultimately developed heart failure. They underwent prosthetic valve replacement and prolonged antifungal treatment with favorable outcome.

DISCUSSION

IE commonly occurs in the setting of underlying malignancy, chronic liver disease, previous endocarditis, previous antimicrobial exposure, previous abdominal surgery, intravenous drug use, presence of a central venous catheter, and previous cardiac surgery. Both present patients had undergone a cardiac surgery and had a prosthetic heart valve, while one patient had an underlying autoimmune disease that could be associated with higher risk of IE. In both patients transthoracic ultrasound failed to diagnose IE. In our patients, conservative treatment alone was not enough to control the infection, thus, both patients underwent valve replacement and were subsequently treated with antifungals for 6 weeks. Furthermore, both patients were put on long-term antifungal suppression treatment.

CONCLUSIONS

Given the absence of controlled randomized trials, the treatment of endocarditis mostly relies on experts' opinion, and, thus, future studies focusing on the type and duration of antifungal treatment are required.