[Brucella pancarditis with fatal outcome].

Brucella endocarditis was diagnosed in a 21-year-old itinerant farm worker hospitalized for acute pulmonary edema. History taking revealed cough, fever and sweating one month earlier which had been treated with antibiotics. At admission, echography showed lesions on the aortic valve and hemocultures identified Brucella meltensis. On day 7 of specific treatment with doxycycline (200 mg/day) and rifamycine (1200 mg/day), and despite digitalics and diuretics, left ventricular failure rapidly worsened, leading to cardiac arrest and death before emergency surgery could be performed. Autopsy showed occlusive vegetations on the aortic valves facing the right coronary ostium, deep ulceration of the valsava sinus with abscess formation and fibrino-hemorragic pericarditis involving both the anterior and posterior walls of the epicardium. Gram negative germs were evidenced in the abscess alone. This case emphasizes the potentially rapid destructive effect of Brucella melitensis and confirms that surgery is the safest therapeutic alternative for aortic valve localizations. Surgery should be performed without delay.