Antibiotics Vs Antibiotics and Surgical ThERapy for Infective Endocarditis

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening disease and studies suggest that the incidence of IE has almost doubled in the last twenty years. Despite improved disease-management and diagnostics (i.e. antibiotics, surgery, and imaging techniques) IE remains a condition that is hard to diagnose and associated with high mortality (≈1/3 die within one year). Surgery is a key part of the clinical practice in IE, but the role of surgery has been greatly debated and is also used with great variation among centers. Valve repair and replacement are high-risk procedures and per-operative risk is therefore also a natural part of decision for surgery. Clinical guidelines on surgical indications have remained stable in the past decades; however, these recommendations are not based on randomized data and at the moment we are putting very sick patients with endocarditis through high-risk procedures without the proper knowledge and perhaps we refrain from surgery where benefit may be likely.

Eligible patients for study inclusion (inclusion criteria are met), will be assessed at the respective departments in Denmark where IE patients are treated (or in similar department for the international centers). All departments refer to a local endocarditis heart team at a tertiary center with cardiothoracic surgical capabilities. If no exclusion criteria exist (confirmed by the local endocarditis heart team) and the patients sign informed consent after a decent time for reflection (24 hours) then randomization will be done as soon as possible. Study participants with IE are randomized to either:

1. Medical Therapy and surgery: Standard of care treatment with antibiotics according to national and international guidelines depending on the microbiological agent and the investigators aim to perform surgery within 48 hours of randomization.

2. Medical Therapy alone with standard of care treatment with antibiotics according to guidelines depending on the microbiological agent.

Point of randomization will be in the hospital when the patient is assessed for open heart valve surgery by the heart team.

If study participants are included in the study and are randomized to the medical treatment arm of the trial, participants will stay at the local IE center and continue treatment there. If participants are randomized to surgery, the participants will be transferred to a tertiary center as soon as possible and returned to the non-surgical center for completement of treatment. After end of treatment all participants will be discharged to routinely follow-up at one- and four-weeks and at three months. Additionally, a 12 months visit will be planned for all study participants.