[Outcomes of Infectious Endocarditis Requiring Surgical Intervention for an Aortic Root Abscess]

We report the results of infectious endocarditis requiring surgical intervention for aortic root abscess.

We performed 63 surgeries for infectious endocarditis from April 2013 to August 2022. Of those series, we further investigated 10 cases (15.9%, eight males, mean age 67 years, range 46~77 years) requiring surgical intervention for aortic root abscess.

Five cases were prosthetic valve endocarditis. Aortic valve replacement was performed in all 10 cases. To repair root abscess, we performed one direct closure, seven patch repairs with autologous pericardium, and two Bentall procedures with stented bioprosthetic valve and synthetic graft, following radical and complete debridement. All patients were discharged alive (mean number of postoperative days 44, range 29~70 days), and no recurrence of infection or late death was observed during the follow-up period (mean 51 months, range 5~103 months).

Although aortic root abscess is a gravely dangerous condition and has a high risk of death, we presented excellent surgical outcomes of this life-threatening disease.