Surgical treatment of infective endocarditis in intravenous drug abusers.

In patients presenting with active intravenous drug abuse, treatment of infective endocarditis should be performed as aggressively as possible and should be followed by antibiotic therapy to avoid high mortality rates and recurrent endocarditis. Early intervention is advisable in patients with an infective endocarditis and enterococcus species in the preoperative blood cultures, liver function deterioration as well as cardiac function impairment. Attention should be also payed to addiction treatment, due to the elevated relapse rate in patients who actively inject drugs. However, larger prospective studies are necessary to support our results. As septic shock is the most frequent cause of death, new treatment options, e.g. blood purification should be evaluated.