Surgical Experience of Infective Endocarditis

심내막염 환자의 외과적 치험

From May 1984 through December 1991, twelve patients underwent valve replacement for infective endocarditis at National Medical Center. There were 7 male and 5 female, ranged in age 16 to 61[mean 34.1] years. Four had native valve endocarditis, six had prosthetic valve endocarditis and two were associated with congenital heart disease. The indication of surgery was medically intractable congestive heart failure in all patients. 5 patients revealed systemic embolization and 4 patients had uncontrollable sepsis. The causative organism was Streptococcus in 4 patients, Staphylococcus in 1 patient and Pseudomonas in 2 patients. Hospital mortality was 33.3%[4/12]. The main cause of death was low cardiac output due to perioperative myocardial damage and cerebral vascular accident. There were 2 late mortality because of recurrent endocarditis. This review showed much higher mortality in prosthetic valve endocarditis[66.7%] than native valve endocarditis[33.3%].