An 82-year-old man with a prosthetic aortic valve and multimicrobial bacteremia.

The patient is an 82-year-old male with a past medical history of aortic valve replacement who presented to the emergency department after a fall. He developed atrial fibrillation with a rapid ventricular response and non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction, leading to hospitalization. During hospital admission, the patient complained of midline thoracic back pain, and an extensive evaluation for this complaint revealed discitis and osteomyelitis with epidural abscess near the T7 and T8 vertebrae that did not result in neurological deficits and required no surgical intervention.

Duration of colonization with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus.

Objective: To determine the duration of colonization with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and the adequacy of 3 consecutive negative cultures to determine clearance.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: A university hospital.