RT Book, Section A1 Pettersson, Gösta B. A1 Hussain, Syed T. A2 Cohn, Lawrence H. A2 Adams, David H. SR Print(0) ID 1144165219 T1 Surgical Treatment of Mitral Valve Endocarditis T2 Cardiac Surgery in the Adult, 5e YR 2017 FD 2017 PB McGraw-Hill Education PP New York, NY SN 9780071844871 LK accesscardiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1144165219 RD 2024/03/28 AB Mitral valve infective endocarditis (IE) is one of the more devastating complications of mitral valve disease, and if left untreated, it is universally fatal, like any other form of IE. In surgical practice, mitral valve endocarditis is usually less common than aortic valve endocarditis, with most infections occurring in native mitral valves. Although the distribution of causes of mitral valve dysfunction has changed in recent years, the overall incidence of IE has increased during the past 3 decades.1-6 Rheumatic valve disease, which was a frequent predisposing factor to IE in the 1980s, is now rare in industrialized nations.6-7 Predisposing factors more frequently encountered today, several of which are consequences of advances that characterize modern medicine,1-7 include degenerative valvular disease, prosthetic valves, other intravascular prostheses and devices, hemodialysis, nosocomial infections, intravenous drug abuse, and immunosuppression. Repaired valves have a low risk of endocarditis compared with prosthetic valves. (To learn more about the epidemiology of IE, see Chapter 31.)