Objective: to assess the experience of both departments in the surgical therapy of infective endocarditis--indications and results.
Design: retrospective analysis on clinical data, surgery and follow up.
Setting: patients (pts) studied in the Cardiology Department and Cardiothoracic Surgery Department of the Santa Marta Hospital in Lisbon.
Patients and interventions: sequential sample of 28 patients (11 females, 17 males, mean age 39 years) submitted to surgery between 1978 and 1987 for infective endocarditis.
Measurements and results: the indications for surgery were: heart failure (15 pts), "resistant" infection (8 pts), emboli (4 pts) and "large" vegetations shown by echocardiography (2 pts). Surgical mortality -27.5%. Four patients developed periprosthetic leaks. There was an improvement in functional class of the survivals.
Conclusion: the indications for surgery were heart failure, "resistant" infection, emboli and "large" vegetations. There was a high surgical mortality, namely in the patients with resistant infection, severe heart failure and periprosthetic leaks. In the follow up there was a net improvement of functional class. The morbidity is due to the periprosthetic leaks, which induced most of the reoperations.