Vegetectomy: an alternative surgical treatment for infective endocarditis of the atrioventricular valves in drug addicts.

The case of a patient in whom two separate episodes of infective endocarditis were treated by excision of the infected vegetation ("vegetectomy") is reported. In carefully selected patients, early conservative operation may preserve the native valve and avoid the hazards of anticoagulative medication and prosthetic endocarditis in habitual drug abusers.