Infective endocarditis at a hospital in Saudi Arabia: epidemiology, bacterial pathogens and outcome.
OBJECTIVE
Data on infective endocarditis prevalence, epidemiology and etiology from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region are sparse. We undertook this study to describe the pattern and the causative agents of endocarditis at a hospital in Saudi Arabia.


METHODS
We conducted a retrospective analysis of all reported endocarditis cases at the Dhahran Health Center from January 1995 to December 2008.


RESULTS
Of the 83 cases of endocarditis, 54 (65%) were definite endocarditis and the remaining 29 (35%) were possible endocarditis based on the Duke criteria. Patients with definite endocarditis included 39 males and 15 females (ratio of 2.6:1) with a mean age (SD) of 59.7 (18.2) years. Of the definite endocarditis cases, native valve endocarditis occurred in 44 (81.5%) cases of and prosthetic valve endocarditis was observed in 10 (18.5%). The most commonly involved valves were mitral (n=24; 44.4%) and aortic (n=20; 39.2%). The most common organisms were S aureus (n=23; 42.6%), Enterococcus faecalis (n=12; 22.2%) and viridans streptococci (n=9; 16.7%). Surgical intervention was required in 17 (31.4%) cases and the in-hospital mortality rate was 29.4% (n=15). Of all the patients, 3 (5.5%) had embolic stroke as a complication.


CONCLUSIONS
Native valve endocarditis is the predominant type of endocarditis. The patients were older adults and the most common organisms were S aureus, E faecalis and viridans streptococci.
Al-Tawfiq
Jaffar A
JA
Internal Medicine Services Division, Saudi Aramco Medical Services Organization, Dhahran Health Center, Saudi Arabia. jaffar.tawfiq@aramco.com
Sufi
Ismail
I
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis / Q000382:microbiology; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D016459:Prosthesis-Related Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012529:Saudi Arabia / Q000453:epidemiology