Septic Emboli

Excerpt

Septic embolism is an obstruction of a blood vessel, typically by an infected thrombus that travels through the bloodstream from a distant infectious source and blocks a blood vessel. Septic emboli result in two insults—the early embolic/ischemic insult due to vascular occlusion that may lead to infarction and the infectious insult that leads to inflammation and possible abscess formation.

Septic embolism frequently results from infective endocarditis. In fact, Osler nodes (the tender purplish-colored papules), which are pathognomonic of infective endocarditis, are indeed evidence of embolism, a biopsy of which results in the isolation of respective causative microorganisms.