Outcomes of infective endocarditis in patients with and without pericardial effusion: a National Inpatient Sample study

Abstract Introduction Pericardial effusion (PE) in patients with infective endocarditis (IE) has been shown to be an independent risk factor for severe complications, however no significant association with mortality has been established. Our study aims to study the significance of pericardial effusion in patients with IE. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis using the United States National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database to identify all the hospital admissions with IE using ICD 10 codes and divided them into two groups based on the presence of PE. The outcomes of interest were in-hospital mortality, in-hospital complications, need for cardiac surgery, and length of stay (LOS). Results A total of 381,300 patients were hospitalized from 2016 to 2019 with IE, of whom 10,370 developed PE. Mean age of patients in the PE group was 51 years and in non-PE group was 61 years with males and Caucasian race being predominant in both groups. PE group had higher rates of in-hospital death (12.7% vs 9%, P≤0.001) and longer in-hospital stay (12 days vs 7 days, P≤0.001) compared to non-PE group. The rates of cardiac surgery were higher in PE group (26.1% vs 8.4%, P≤0.001). The rates of heart failure, heart block, renal failure, cardiogenic shock, and embolic stroke were higher in PE group [Table 1]. Conclusion Our study shows that presence of PE in patients with IE is a predictor for in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and need for cardiac surgery. Also, these patients are at higher risk for heart failure, heart block, cardiogenic shock and embolic stroke. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.