[Surgical treatment of endocarditis following heart valve prosthesis]

Experience of many years in surgical treatment of prosthetic valve endocarditis (RVE) is analyzed. Patients whose condition was serious were operated on for a second time: 91.6% had preoperative functional class IV, in half of them circulatory disorders were of stage IIB--III; 62.4% were subjected to reoperation for emergency indications. Twenty-five reoperations were performed for early PVE with 52% hospital mortality, 23 reoperations-for late term PVE with mortality of 30.4%. The most frequent cause of PVE was staphylococcal infection which showed a tendency to increase in the recent years. In early PVE the severity of the condition in the recent years. In early PVE the severity of the condition was due to sepsis and intoxication, in late-term PVE it was caused by disorders of hemodynamics which were usually induced by dysfunction of the prosthesis. The results of surgical management of PVE depended on the severity of the patient's condition before the operation, timely performance of the operation, and the efficacy of antibacterial therapy.