Contemporary in-hospital and long-term outcomes of surgical management for fungal endocarditis

Abstract

Fungal endocarditis (FE) is a rare and fatal disease. The contemporary in-hospital and long-term surgical outcomes of FE have not been adequately evaluated. This study describes our experience with the surgical management of FE. Eight FE patients who underwent surgery in our center from January 2004 to November 2016 were included in this study. Seven had fungal prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE) and one fungal native valve endocarditis (NVE). The Ben-tall operation, Cabrol operation, and mitral valve replacement were performed in 4, 3, and 1 patient, respectively. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 25% (2/8). The follow-up was completed in all surviving patients and the mean follow-up time was 55.5 ± 63.3 (range, 1-154) months. Two late deaths occurred at 2 months and 4 months after discharge. The other patients recovered well during the follow-up. FE is a devastating disease and surgical treatment has acceptable in-hospital and long-term mortality rates.