Abstract
Twenty xenografts (Hancock; 5, Ionescu-Shiley; 15) from 17 patients were investigated histopathologically.
Bacterial colonies were found out deep within cusp tissue on 5 out of 6 PVE xenografts.
Inflammatory cell infiltrations were found out only within fibrinclots of the cusp surface on 3 out of 7 xenografts exposed in bacteremias early after operations. And, the bacterial colony was found out only within fibrinclots on 1 out of those 3 xenografts.
In Ionescu-Shiley pericardial xenografts, the structures of the cusp tissue were less disrupted than Hancock xenografts even in PVE.
We think that xenografts are not biological inert in human bodies and the infection begins with the inflammatory cell infiltration and the bacterial colony within fibrinclots on the cusp surface initialy.
It is impossible to make diagnosis of PVE at the stage that the inflammatory cell infiltration and the bacterial colony are found out only within fibrinclots on the cusp surface.
But, the enough dose of antibiotics to penetrate into fibrinclots will be effectice even at this stage.
