Haemophilus parainfluenzae is a gram-negative coccobacillus that is a part of the normal flora in the human upper airway and sometimes causes infective endocarditis. We present a case of a 68-year-old Japanese man who had vascular graft infection caused by H. parainfluenzae four years after surgery for chronic aortic dissection.
A 48-year-old woman was scheduled to undergo wrist surgery at the orthopedic surgery clinic. She was adventitiously diagnosed with miliary tuberculosis and saccular-type aneurysms in the suprarenal abdominal aorta and descending thoracic aorta during preoperative examination. Consequently, she received antituberculosis medications. However, the abdominal aortic aneurysm had enlarged rapidly 2 months later. Accordingly, we used an artificial graft patch bonded with rifampicin for the abdominal aortic aneurysm and resected the aneurysm and reconstructed the aorta through partial extracorporeal circulation by clamping the descending thoracic aorta and infrarenal abdominal aorta. Finally, we performed a thoracic endovascular aortic repair of the thoracic aortic aneurysm. Culture of the samples from the wall of the abdominal aortic aneurysm indicated Mycobacterium tuberculosis; therefore, the patient was diagnosed with a tuberculous aneurysm of the aorta. Her postoperative course was good, and she was discharged on day 36. At postoperative month 7, the patient is still on antituberculosis medications and has not experienced a recurrence.
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