European Research Group on Outcomes of Surgical Treatment of Infective Endocarditis (ERGOSTE)

ERGOSTE, Purposes:

• To create a European multicenter retrospective database including a large number of patients undergoing surgical treatment for infective endocarditis (IE).
• To perform epidemiologic analyses of IE-patients and involved pathogens.
• To find independent predictors of early post-operative death.
• To test ALL the scoring systems specifically developed to predict early death after surgery for infective endocarditis.
• To devise a specific risk score for early postoperative death.
• To explore early and late outcomes of these very difficult patients in order to establish optimal indications, techniques and timing of surgery.
• To carry out a number of sub-analyses concerning the demographic parameters and variable clinical presentation of patients, type and severity of cardiac structural involvement, adopted valve prostheses and surgical techniques, and different involved microbiologic agents.
• To lay experiential foundations of a prospective database on the topic.