The clinical value of the endocarditis team: insights from before and after guidelines implementation strategy

Purpose To evaluate the impact of a multidisciplinary the "Endocarditis Team" (ET) on the course and outcome of infective endocarditis (IE) patients. Methods A retrospective before-after study, including hospitalized patients with definite IE, managed before (01.2013-12.2015) and after (01.2016-07.2019) the introduction of an ET. The primary outcomes were defined as 30-day and 1-year mortality and the secondary as conservative vs. invasive strategy, the interval from clinical suspicion of IE to the performance of echocardiography, utilization of multimodality evaluation, time to an invasive procedure, and the duration of hospitalization. Results Study population included 92 pre-ET and 128 post-ET implementation patients. Baseline characteristics were similar. During the post-ET period compared with pre-ET, we found higher rates of abscesses and extra-cardiac emboli (27.8% vs. 16.3%, p = 0.048); and a higher invasive procedures rate, including lead extraction (15.6% vs. 6.5%, p = 0.035) and noncardiac surgeries (14.8% vs. 6.5%, p = 0.05). Patients managed during the post-ET period had reduced short (8.5% vs. 17.4%, p = 0.048) and long-term mortality (Log-rank = 0.001). In multivariate analysis of risk factors for long-term mortality, period (pre- or post-ET) was not found to be significantly associated with the mortality. Conclusion Establishment of an ET was associated with faster and more intensive evaluation of patients with IE. During the period of an ET activity, mortality rates were reduced compared with the previous period.