title: Impact of early surgery on embolic events in patients with infective endocarditis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Surgical indications to prevent systemic embolism in infective endocarditis (IE) remain controversial. We sought to compare clinical outcomes of early surgery with conventional treatment in IE patients with embolic indications only.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 1998 to 2006, we prospectively enrolled 132 consecutive patients (86 men; age, 49±17 years) with definite IE. Patients were included if they had a left-sided native valve endocarditis with vegetation. The choice of early surgery or conventional treatment was at the discretion of attending physician. Early surgery was performed on 64 patients (OP group) within 7 days of diagnosis, and conventional management was chosen for 68 patients (CONV group). The OP group had larger vegetations and a higher percentage of patients with severe valvular disease (88% versus 62%, P=0.001). During initial hospitalization, there were no embolic events and 2 in-hospital deaths in the OP group and 14 embolic events and 2 in-hospital deaths in the CONV group. During a median follow-up of 1402 days, there were 2 cardiovascular deaths, 2 embolic events, and 1 recurrence of IE in the CONV group, and 1 cardiovascular death and 2 embolic events in the OP group. The 5-year event-free survival rate was significantly higher in the OP group (93±3%) than in the CONV group (73±5%, P=0.0016). For 44 propensity score-matched pairs, the OP group had a lower event rate (hazard ratio, 0.18; P=0.007).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared with conventional treatment, an early surgery strategy is associated with improved clinical outcomes by effectively decreasing systemic embolism in patients with IE.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Asan Medical Center, College of Medicine, University of Ulsan, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Dae-Hee
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Duk-Hyun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Myung-Zoon
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sung-Cheol
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.forename: Yong-Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jong-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Jae-Kwan
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Jae-Won
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dae-Won
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Sohn
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004617:Embolism / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D004696:Endocarditis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors