title: [Polymicrobial infective endocarditis in Italy].
abstract: In our series, including 1053 cases of infective endocarditis (IE) collected from 86 Infectious Diseases Centres in Italy between 1984 and 1999, we identified 34 cases (3.2%) with a polymicrobial etiology. Intravenous drug abuse was the most important risk factor for the development of polymicrobial IE. Twenty three patients had a left sided-IE and 6 patients had a right-sided IE. The most commonly encountered microorganisms were Staphylococci and Streptococci and the most frequently observed associations of microorganisms were those between Staphylococci and Gram-negative bacteria and between Staphylococci and fungi. Twelve patients (35.3%) underwent surgery, and 5 patients (16.7%) died. Polymicrobial endocarditis did not differ clinically from IE caused by a single microorganism, and the prognosis seems to be related to the site of infection and to some specific pathogens.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Malattie Infettive e Tropicali, Università La Sapienza, Roma. s.cicalini@virgilio.it
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cicalini
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Francavilla
authors.forename: Katia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Massaroni
authors.forename: Francesco Giuseppe
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: De Rosa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004696:Endocarditis / Q000382:microbiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies