Rheumatic Fever

Treatment

Mayo Clinic doctors who have training in treating children who have heart disease (pediatric cardiologists) work with heart surgeons, doctors trained in infectious diseases and doctors trained in treating children with medical conditions (pediatricians) to treat people who have rheumatic fever.

Your child may need to be treated in the hospital, depending on the severity of his or her disease. Children needing hospitalization receive care at Mayo Eugenio Litta Children's Hospital at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Your child's rheumatic fever treatment may include antibiotics and anti-inflammatory medications, rest, and, in the most serious cases, surgical repair of damaged heart valves. Your child's doctor will focus on treating your child's condition by eliminating the strep infection, reducing inflammation, relieving your child's symptoms and preventing recurrence of the disease.

Your child's treatment team determines how to manage your child's rheumatic fever based on several factors, including:

• Age, overall health and medical history
• Condition
• Tolerance for specific medications, procedures or therapies
• The expected course of the condition
• Your opinion or preference

Treatment

Your child's rheumatic fever treatment may include many options.

• Antibiotics. Your child's doctor will prescribe antibiotics to treat your child's primary strep infection.
• Anti-inflammatory medications. Your child's doctor often prescribes an anti-inflammatory medication, such as aspirin, to help decrease heart inflammation and relieve joint pain. Your child's doctor may prescribe a corticosteroid drug to reduce severe heart inflammation.
• Surgical procedures. Rheumatic fever may cause your or your child's heart valves to be damaged (heart valve disease). You or your child may not need treatment for many years, but eventually you or your child may need heart valve repair or replacement (heart valve surgery).
• Lifelong therapy. Your doctor may recommend that your child take antibiotics to prevent recurrences of rheumatic fever until early adulthood or possibly for life. Some children who had a mechanical heart valve replacement may need to take antibiotics before surgery or dental procedures to prevent an infection of the heart's lining and valves (endocarditis).