[Mitral Valve Plasty in Active Infective Endocarditis]

According to the current guideline, early surgery is recommended in patients with infective endocarditis (IE). On the other hand, mitral valve plasty (MVP) became the preferred surgical option in patients with IE, because of its benefits in the preservation of left ventricular function and prevention of recurrence of infection. Feasibility of MVP is an important issue in surgical strategy, however, it might be associated with the timing of the operation:feasibility of MVP might be higher in healed IE than active IE, although there had been no clear evidence in previous studies. In order to develop scoring system to predict feasibility of MVP in patients with active IE, we have introduced "severity score".Severity score defined as the sum of valvular score which evaluates the extensiveness of the valvular destruction, and technical score which evaluates the complexity and durability of the repair. Probability of feasible MVP was high in severity score≤7 points and low in severity score≥9 points. MVP is basically selected in patients with severity score of 8 points, taking the benefit of patients and risks of longterm durability into consideration. We believe that severity score is valuable and reproducible scoring system in surgical decision making.