Surgical therapy in patients with active infective endocarditis: seven-year single centre experience in a subgroup of 255 patients treated with the Shelhigh® stentless bioprosthesis

Abstract

The survival of patients differs significantly in dependence on their surgical urgency. Better outcome could have been achieved if patients had been referred earlier for surgery and operated upon before heart failure or septic shock developed. Long-term survival was better in patients without abscess formation. The low reinfection rate of Shelhigh bioprostheses in AIE is promising and the early and mid-term results achieved need to be verified in the long-term course.