Prosthetic valve endocarditis

The Authors report their experience of the surgical treatment of cardiac prosthetic endocarditis. Between September 1974 and December 1988, 2,796 cardiac prostheses were implanted. An endocarditis in the follow-up of 23 patients involving 27 prostheses was diagnosed. The operative mortality was high in patients with mitral prosthetic endocarditis; in patients with infected aortic prosthesis operative mortality was low, but there was a high incidence of recurrence. The Authors emphasize the difficulty of diagnosis and the importance of the surgical treatment for eradication of the infection and for resolution of the haemodynamic defect.