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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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If An Oral Abscess Was Lanced, And Left Untreated, Could The Resultant Infection Cause Endocarditis?

If an oral abscess was lanced, and left untreated, could the resultant infection cause endocarditis? A death certificate, dated 1920, staes cause of death to be endocarditis resulting from erysipelas Three days prior, an oral abscess is lanced. Would the resultant infection cause erysipelas? Would the resultant infection cause endocarditis?
Sat, 19 Dec 2009
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Standard treatment for acute staph infection in 1920 was lancing the abscess and hoping the infection healed after draining out the pus. Sometimes this worked and sometimes it didn't. In a very famous and highly publicized similar situation President Calvin Coolidge's son died in the White House from a lanced toe infected with staph aureus in 1924. If the infection didn't come out when the abscess was lanced, the infection would turn inward causing sepsis and death. I think that is what happened in the death certificate you mention. The person died from massive sepsis with the endocarditis being a likely final cause of death.
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If An Oral Abscess Was Lanced, And Left Untreated, Could The Resultant Infection Cause Endocarditis?

Standard treatment for acute staph infection in 1920 was lancing the abscess and hoping the infection healed after draining out the pus. Sometimes this worked and sometimes it didn t. In a very famous and highly publicized similar situation President Calvin Coolidge s son died in the White House from a lanced toe infected with staph aureus in 1924. If the infection didn t come out when the abscess was lanced, the infection would turn inward causing sepsis and death. I think that is what happened in the death certificate you mention. The person died from massive sepsis with the endocarditis being a likely final cause of death.