Influence of the timing of cardiac surgery on the outcome of patients with infective endocarditis and stroke

Abstract

© The Author 2012. Background. The timing of cardiac surgery after stroke in infective endocarditis (IE) remains controversial. We examined the relationship between the timing of surgery after stroke and the incidence of in-hospital and 1-year mortalities. Methods. Data were obtained from the International Collaboration on Endocarditis-Prospective Cohort Study of 4794 patients with definite IE who were admitted to 64 centers from June 2000 through December 2006. Multivariate logistic regression and Cox regression analyses were performed to estimate the impact of early surgery on hospital and 1-year mortality after adjustments for other significant covariates. Results. Of the 857 patients with IE complicated by ischemic stroke syndromes, 198 who underwent valve replacement surgery poststroke were available for analysis. Overall, 58 (29.3%) patients underwent early surgical treatment vs 140 (70.7%) patients who underwent late surgical treatment. After adjustment for other risk factors, e