Prosthetic endocarditis, with or without vegetation, of valves and annuloplasty rings is a serious complication of cardiac valve replacement and valve repair surgeries despite improvements in prostheses types, surgical techniques, and infection control measures.This infection is generally categorized into early (onset usually less than 60 days postoperative) and late (onset greater than 60 days post-implantation).Prosthetic endocarditis occurring within 60 days of valve or ring implantation generally reflects contamination arising in the perioperative period.There are many opportunities for organisms to seed a prosthesis peri-operatively, most of which probably occurs intraoperatively.Besides the patient's own skin and access lines, several other important modes of contamination have been recognized including air in the operating room, the coronary suction devices used during surgery and the heart-lung bypass machine, faulty technique during cardiac output measurements, and the prosthesis itself.In early cases of prosthetic endocarditis, subsequent infections are almost universally related to contamination at the time of surgery.The device was not returned for evaluation due to endocarditis.In this case, minimal information regarding this procedure was received and attempts to get additional information regarding the condition of the device, patient's medical history, or possible comorbidities have been unsuccessful.The, the root cause for the endocarditis remains indeterminable.However, it is likely that patient and procedural factors contributed to the event.If new information becomes available, a supplemental report will be submitted.The device history record (dhr) was reviewed and showed that this device met all manufacturing and sterilization specifications for product release prior to distribution.No issues were identified that would have impacted this event.A lot history review was performed and no events with the same defect were found.Edwards will continue to review and monitor all events.Trends are monitored on a monthly basis and if action is required, appropriate investigation will be performed.
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Edwards lifesciences maintains an implant patient registry.This registry is a patient tracking mechanism for serialized edwards implantable devices (bioprosthetic heart valves and annuloplasty rings), rather than a true post-market surveillance registry.Through the registry, edwards is notified when these devices are implanted.In addition, patient and/or device status may be reported to the registry via the implantation data cards.The information is received from various sources (e.G.Surgeon, hospital and patient family members) and is not received in the form of a conventional "customer complaint." the information reported may or may not be related to the edwards device.In this case, it was reported via the implant patient registry that a 26mm mitral annuloplasty ring was explanted after an implant duration of 1 month due to endocarditis and regurgitation.A 25mm pericardial mitral valve was implanted in replacement.During the same procedure a 21mm pericardial aortic valve and a 24mm tricuspid annuloplasty ring were implanted in pulmonary position and tricuspid position, respectively.There were no complications and the patient was transferred to icu in stable condition.
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