Abstract
Infective Endocarditis (IE) still remains a serious disease. The treatment and pathology still remain unclear. In this study, we sought to clarify the epidemiology and treatment of IE in a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia. In this study, we sought to conduct a retrospective investigation of all adult patients who were treated for IE at our hospital and determine the characteristic demographic, clinical and pathological features. Our findings indicate that the main risk factors of IE were surgical intervention (28%) and structural heart disease (20%). The mean (SD) age of the patients in our study was 48 (18). The most common organisms identified were Staphylococcus aureus (40%) and Streptococcus viridans (30%). The most common clinical presentations were anorexia, weight loss and shortness of breath. IE was accompanied by valvular dysfunction in most cases (83%) and vegetation (55%). About 83% of the patients had undergone transthoracic echocardiography. Our findings provided some insight into the current trends in the epidemiology and clinical features of IE in Saudi Arabia.
Highlights
Infective Endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening infection characterized by the inflammation of the cardiac endothelium and valvular tissue
The current study was aimed at evaluating the epidemiology, pathology and treatment of IE
A previous study conducted in Saudi Arabia showed that IE occurred most commonly as a result of native valve endocarditis and that the most common pathogenic organisms involved were S aureus, Enterococcus faecalis and streptococci viridans Gil et al (2017)
Summary
Infective Endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening infection characterized by the inflammation of the cardiac endothelium and valvular tissue. Staphylococcus aureus has been identified as the most common pathogenic organism in IE in developed countries and has been the cause of severe disease in affected populations, patients who are elderly and those with pre-existing anomalies Cahill et al (2017). The disease continues to remain challenging to diagnose and manage. One of the main reasons for the difficulty in the treatment of IE is that the affected patients generally have severe pre-existing diseases and their general condition may already be poor 3. In a recent study, Capilla et al (2017) showed that IE continues to remain a serious condition and that S. aureus is the most common pathogenic organism involved in IE Capilla et al (2017)
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