Discussion
Abscesses represent extension of infection into the tissue surrounding an
infected valve and occur in over half of patients with infected aortic valve
prosthetics (1). They most commonly develop in the mitral-aortic
intervalvular fibrosa (MAIF), presumably because of the poor vascularity of the
cardiac fibrous skeleton as well as the scar tissue left behind from prior surgery (2).
Pseudoaneurysms are thought to evolve from abscesses which communicate with
high pressure chambers, such as the left ventricle and aorta. It has been suggested
that the high pressure generated in these chambers dissects into structurally
deficient abscess cavities and remodels them into pseudoaneurysms