INFECTIVE ENDOCARDITIS

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a special disease for at least three reasons:- neither its incidence nor its mortality has decreased during the last three decades; despite significant progress in diagnostic and therapeutic means its mortality remains high;- it is not a uniform disease: its presentations are very variable depending on the initial clinical manifestations pre-existing heart disease if any the microorganism the presence or absence of complications and the characteristics of the patient; for this reason IE requires a collaborative approach involving the general practitioner the cardiologist the surgeon the microbiologist the infectious disease specialist and often other physicians (neurologists neurosurgeons radiologists anatomopathologists...);- recommendations are most often based on expert opinion because there are almost no randomized trials.