RT Book, Section
A1 Pettersson, Gosta B.
A1 Gillinov, A. Marc
A1 Stamou, Sotiris C.
A2 Cohn, Lawrence H.
SR Print(0)
ID 55923676
T1 Chapter 43. Surgical Treatment of Mitral Valve Endocarditis
T2 Cardiac Surgery in the Adult, 4e
YR 2012
FD 2012
PB The McGraw-Hill Companies
PP New York, NY
SN 978-0-07-163310-9
LK accesssurgery.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=55923676
RD 2024/04/20
AB Mitral  valve  infective  endocarditis  is  one  of  the  more  devastating  complications  of  heart  valve  disease,  and,  if  left  untreated,  is  universally  fatal.  Although  the  distribution  of  causes  of  mitral  valve  dysfunction  has  changed  in  recent  years,  the  incidence  of  infective  endocarditis  has  remained  constant  over  the  past  several  decades.1  Underlying  rheumatic  valvular  disease,  which  was  a  frequent  predisposing  factor  to  infective  endocarditis  in  the  1980s,  is  now  rare  in  industrialized  nations.2  Other  predisposing  factors  more  frequently  encountered  today  include  intravenous  drug  abuse,  immunosuppression,  degenerative  valvular  disease,  intravascular  prostheses  and  devices,  hemodialysis  catheters,  and  nosocomial  infections.  Several  of  these  predisposing  factors  are  consequences  of  advances  that  characterize  modern  medicine.3