Case Report: Heart Transplantation for Refractory Candida tropicalis Endocarditis: A Case Report and Literature Review

TL;DR

Heart transplantation was used to successfully treat a severe and drug-resistant fungal heart infection.

Contribution

This case report highlights heart transplantation as a potential last-resort treatment for refractory fungal endocarditis.

Findings

Heart transplantation successfully treated refractory Candida tropicalis endocarditis.

Only two cases of fungal endocarditis have been treated with heart transplantation in the literature.

The patient remained infection-free for two and a half years post-transplantation.

Abstract

Candida infective endocarditis presents therapeutic challenges with high mortality. A complex case of Candida prosthetic valve endocarditis refractory to standard antifungals (anidulafungin and fluconazole) and high-dose caspofungin was successfully treated with heart transplantation. The literature review revealed a few cases of bacterial endocarditis successfully treated with heart transplantation, but with only two transplanted cases of fungal endocarditis. This report explores heart transplantation as a last resort for managing refractory infective endocarditis. The patient is still alive and free of infection, two and a half years after transplantation.

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