[Infectious endocarditis: a current overview on an "old" disease]

The infectious endocarditis, first described by William Osler in 1885, is and still remains nowadays as a severe disease, with difficult diagnosis and coursing with high morbi-mortality rates. However, along the years, the disease showed significant modifications in its epidemiology, risk factors, etiologic agents, new study and diagnostic tests and new treatment modalities, medical and surgical, which are the subject of an extensive review by the author, based on an accumulated clinical experience during the last three decades.