Background: Early onset prosthetic valve endocarditis (EO-PVE) is an serious complication associated with heart valve replacement surgery.

Objectives: To describe the epidemiologic, clinical, and laboratory profile of patients with EO-PVE in a cardiac surgical hospital.

Patients and methods: A retrospective analysis of an endocarditis database, implemented prospectively, with a post hoc study driven by analysis of cases of adults with definite endocarditis occurring up to 12 months after heart valve surgery.

Results: We identified 26 cases in 2,496 surgeries in the period 2006-2016. The average annual incidence was 1.04%. The median time between valve replacement and the diagnosis of EO-PVE was 33 days (interquartile range [IQR] 19.25-118.75). Biologic and mechanical prostheses were affected in 53.8% and 46.2%, respectively. Rheumatic disease was present in 57.7% of patients. The most common causative pathogens were Staphylococcus epidermidis (23.1%). No Staphylococcus aureus infection was reported. Complications were present in 73.1% of cases, including embolism (65.4%), acute renal failure (38.5%), and heart failure (23.1%). The mortality rate at 30 days and 12 months was 3.8% and 34.6%, respectively.

Conclusions: In our cohort EO-PVE was an serious complication of heart valve replacement with a high morbidity and mortality, despite its low frequency.

Keywords: cardiac surgery; early onset endocarditis; nosocomial infection; prosthetic endocarditis; prosthetic valve.