Surgical treatment in active infective endocarditis: results of a four-year experience.

Background. Aim of present investigation was to analyze survival and recurrence rate in patients with active endocarditis referred to our centre for surgical treatment. Methods. 80 consecutive patients with active infective endocarditis (52 males, 28 females, mean age 59.2 years) were referred to our institution for surgical treatment. 78 patients underwent surgery, and 2 patients died before intervention. Results. Fifty patients had native valve endocarditis, 30 prosthetic valve involvement. Hospital mortality has been 10.2%. Three discharged patients (4.9%) died at an average 18-month followup. Endocarditis recurred in 4 (2 being S. aureus prosthetic tricuspid endocarditis in drug addicts). All patients who underwent valve repair or homograft implant were alive and free of recurrence. Conclusions. Our results suggest that with proper surgical treatment patients with active endocarditis discharged alive from hospital have a survival >90% at 18 months with a low recurrence rate.