Surgical outcomes of infective endocarditis in children: should we delay surgery for infective endocarditis?

OBJECTIVES: We compared the surgical outcomes of infective endocarditis (IE) between early surgery and non-early surgery groups in children. METHODS: From January 2000 to April 2020, we retrospectively reviewed 50 patients <18 years of age who underwent first surgery for IE. Early surgery was defined as that performed within 2 days for left-sided IE and 7 days for right-sided IE after diagnosis. RESULTS: The median age and body weight at operation were 7.7 years [interquartile range (IQR), 2.3-13.2] and 23.7 kg (IQR, 10.3-40.7), respectively. The median follow-up duration was 9.5 years (IQR, 4.0-14.5). In 28 patients with native valve endocarditis, the native valve was preserved in 23 (82.1%). The most common causative microorganism was Streptococcus viridans (32.0%). The operative mortality was 2.0%, and 13 (26.0%) patients required reoperation most commonly for prosthesis failure (n=7). There were no significant differences in patient characteristics and perioperative data between early surgery (n=9) and non-early surgery (n=36) groups, except for the interval between diagnosis and surgery (early surgery < non-early surgery, P<0.001) and preoperative negative blood culture conversion (early surgery < non-early surgery, P=0.025). There were no significant differences in overall survival, recurrent IE, and reoperation rate between the groups. Early surgery and preoperative negative blood culture conversion were not found as significant factors for surgical adverse outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical outcomes for IE in children were acceptable irrespective of the time of surgery. Our results suggest that it may not be required to delay surgery for IE and the potential benefit of early surgery could be expected in children.