Reprint requests to Dr Rothner at the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106.
Bacterial endocarditis is rare in the neonate. Only 26 cases were found at autopsy among 7,898 infants younger than 2 years of age, and only three had involvement of the pulmonary valve.1,2 Recently, the clinical manifestations and antemortem diagnosis of neonatal endocarditis using M-mode echocardiography have been described.3-5 The echocardiographic data correlated well with the findings at autopsy.
We report a case of Staphylococcus aureus endocarditis of the pulmonary valve in an otherwise normal neonate. Two-dimensional echocardiography was used in the diagnosis and subsequent follow-up of the valvular vegetation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of successfully treated neonatal bacterial endocarditis.
Report of a Case.—A male infant was born vaginally at term after a normal pregnancy. He had physiologic jaundice and was