Surgical treatment of active infective endocarditis--early and late results of active native and prosthetic valve endocarditis.

The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical predictors of active infective endocarditis in 45 cases we treated between January 1971 and August 1991 (30 native valve endocarditis (NVE) and 15 prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE). The indication of surgery in 45 patients was progressive congestive heart failure (CHF), septicemia and systemic embolization. The aortic valve was involved in 24 (53%) of 45 patients (13 of 30 NVE and 11 of 15 PVE) and there was significantly higher early mortality in aortic PVE (36%) than in aortic NVE (8%). The 9 patients with severe cardiac failure (NYHA Class V) before surgery were associated with a significantly higher incidence of early mortality (5/9 = 56%) than those in Class III (2/14 = 14%) and Class IV (3/18 = 17%). We concluded that aortic valve infection is more prevalent than mitral valve infection and is more often associated with staphylococcus infection, including abscess formation. Early surgical intervention should be performed despite the risk of cardiac failure and extensive infection.