Surgical treatment of bacterial endocarditis

Valve replacement was performed during a 7-year period in 27 patients with acute or subacute infective endocarditis. Twenty-three patients had single valve affection--16 aortic and 7 mitral--and 4 patients had affection of both the aortic and mitral valves. Eight of the patients with aortic valve lesion had congenital aortic valve stenosis and 2 of the mitral patients had mitral prolapse. Two patients were operated upon only on the echocardiographic finding of valvular vegetations. The rest of the patients were operated because of cardiac insufficiency, intractable infection or peripheral embolization. Five patients died and 22 patients (82%) were discharged. One of these patients died in the follow-up period. The remaining 21 patients all belong to class I or II (NYHA) postoperatively. There were no cases of reinfection. Emphasis is placed on the use of echocardiography in detecting valvular vegetations, and the need to take the proper surgical action as a result of this finding, even in asymptomatic patients.