Early Surgery Versus Conventional Treatment in Infective Endocarditis

Phase 4

Completed

Conditions: Endocarditis

Interventions: Procedure: Valve surgery with removal of vegetations

Registration Number: NCT00750373

Lead Sponsor: Asan Medical Center

Brief Summary: There have been no prospective clinical studies in infective endocarditis comparing early surgery with the conventional treatment strategy based on current guidelines. The purpose of this prospective randomized trial is to compare clinical outcomes of early surgery versus conventional treatment strategy in patients with high embolic risk of infective endocarditis.

Detailed Description: Infective Endocarditis is still associated with high mortality (16-25%) and high incidence of embolic events (10-49%), and the optimal therapeutic strategy remains unclear. The benefit of surgery was particularly high in patients with abscess formation, periannular complications, and moderate to severe heart failure related to acute mitral or aortic regurgitation. Retrospective studies reported that valve surgery was associated with improved survival, but the benefit of early surgery has not been adequately studied due to inherent treatment biases and significant differences in baseline characteristics. Embolic indications for surgery are more controversial, and surgery is usually performed in cases of recurrent emboli and persist vegetations despite appropriate antibiotic treatment. The combined risk of early surgery and valve prosthesis needs to be balanced against the potential benefit of preventing embolism and improving survival. Risk-benefit balance changes recently to favor early surgery in patients with high embolic risk of endocarditis for the following reasons. Identification of patients with high risk of embolism becomes possible with the use of transesophageal echocardiography. Patients with vegetation length \> 10 mm on transesophageal echocardiography have a significantly higher risk of embolization. With advances in surgical technique, urgent surgery is feasible with low operative mortality, and the success rate of valve repair has been increased.

To the best of our knowledge, there have been no prospective outcome studies comparing early surgery with the conventional treatment strategy based on current guidelines. The purpose of this multi-center, prospective, randomized trial is to compare clinical outcomes of early surgery versus conventional treatment strategy in patients with high embolic risks of infective endocarditis.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 76

Inclusion Criteria

Patients diagnosed as infective endocarditis based on modified Duke criteria fulfilling both conditions:
- severe mitral or aortic regurgitation
- vegetation length > 10 mm on mitral or aortic valve

Exclusion Criteria

Patients with urgent and emergent indication of surgery based on current guidelines; aortic abscess, moderate to severe heart failure due to valvular regurgitation, periannular complications, fungal endocarditis
Prosthetic valve endocarditis
Patient without vegetations on echocardiography
Patients with ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke within 2 weeks before the admission
Patients referred from other hospitals more than 7 days after the appropriate antibiotic treatment of infective endocarditis
Patients who were not candidates for surgery based on age > 80 years and coexisting malignancies
Patients who did not consent to participate

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Surgery	Valve surgery with removal of vegetations	Early surgery within 48 hours of randomization

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Number of Participants With In-hospital Death or Clinical Embolic Events	within 6 weeks from the randomization	The composite of in-hospital death and clinical embolic events confirmed by imaging studies: the acute onset of clinical symptoms or signs of embolism and the occurrences of new lesions, as confirmed by follow-up imaging studies.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Recurrences of Infective Endocarditis	up to 6 months after enrollment
All-cause Death	up to 6 month after enrollment
All Embolic Events Including Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Embolization Documented by Imaging Studies	up to 6 months after enrollment
Readmission Due to Development of Congestive Heart Failure	up to 6 months after enrollment