Abstract

Background and Purpose: Cardiac surgery is indicated in more than half of patients with infective endocarditis (IE); however, it is performed in only 60% of the indicated cases. Majority of patients with surgical indications who were denied surgery due to certain reasons die within 30 days. Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is one of the main causes for denial of surgery despite the presence of surgical indications. We aimed to evaluate the impact of early surgery (within 30 days) in IE-patients with ICH on postoperative outcome and to elucidate the risk of 30-day mortality in patients for whom surgery was denied. Methods: Three libraries (MEDLINE, EMBASE and Cochrane Library) were assessed for studies evaluating the postoperative outcome in early vs. late surgery in IE-patients with preoperative ICH. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality, and the secondary outcome was neurological deterioration. Inverse variance method and random model were performed. Results: We identified 16 studies including 355 patients. Nine studies examined the impact of surgical timing (early vs. late) and were included in the meta-analyses. Only one study examined the fate of IE-patients with ICH who were treated conservatively despite of having an indication for cardiac surgery, showing higher mortality rates than those who were operated (11.8 % vs. 2.5 %). We found no significant association between early surgery, regardless of its definition, and a higher mortality (relative risk [RR]= 1.46; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.98-2.17). However, early surgery was associated with higher risk for neurological deterioration (RR= 1.97; 95% CI: 1.15-3.38). Conclusions: Cardiac surgery for IE within 30 days of ICH was not associated with higher mortality, but with increased rate of neurological deterioration. Thirty-day mortality in IE-patients with ICH for whom surgery was denied has not yet been sufficiently investigated. This patient group should be analysed in future studies in more detail.

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