Infective endocarditis and outcomes of valve surgery: the bug, the valve, the host and the unknown

Infective endocarditis (IE) is becoming growing national epidemic in the US (1). The etiology of this substantial increase in IE prevalence is multifactorial, but is likely due to the increasing number of intravenous drug users, patients with prosthetic valves and/or implantable devices, immune-compromised patients, and patients with chronic indwelling catheters (2).