Fatal myocardial microabscesses caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a burn patient

oleh: Hsiang-Wei Huang, Morgan Cowan, Jamil Matthews, Ming-Tseh Lin, Stephen Milner, Marc Halushka

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2014-03-01

Deskripsi

Bacteremia- or sepsis-associated myocardial abscess is often an incidental postmortem diagnosis in patients who die of overwhelming septicemia. Myocardial abscess is more rarely the immediate cause of death as a consequence of abscess rupture or the cause of arrhythmia. We report a 66-year-old female who succumbed to sudden cardiac death with a hemodynamically stable methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia, while in recovery after an accidental thermal burn. Autopsy revealed extensive myocardial abscesses and an abscess in the pineal gland. Myocardial microabscesses should be considered a rare cause of sudden cardiac death in patients with hemodynamically stable MRSA bacteremia.