Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Sep;2(3):100080.
doi: 10.1016/j.infpip.2020.100080. Epub 2020 Jul 30.

Hospital-acquired infective endocarditis during Covid-19 pandemic

Antonio Ramos-Martínez  1 , Ana Fernández-Cruz  2 , Fernando Domínguez  3 , Alberto Forteza  4 , Marta Cobo  3 , Isabel Sánchez-Romero  5 , Angel Asensio  6
Affiliations

Hospital-acquired infective endocarditis during Covid-19 pandemic

Antonio Ramos-Martínez et al. Infect Prev Pract. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

Background: The COVID pandemic has had a major impact on healthcare in hospitals, including the diagnosis and treatment of infections. Hospital-acquired infective endocarditis (HAIE) is a severe complication of medical procedures that has shown a progressive increase in recent years.

Objectives: To determine whether the incidence of HAIE during the first two months of the epidemic (March-April 2020) was higher than previously observed and to describe the clinical characteristics of these cases. The probability of the studied event (HAIE) during the study period was calculated by Poisson distribution.

Results: Four cases of HAIE were diagnosed in our institution during the study period. The incidence of HAIE during the study period was 2/patient-month and 0.3/patient-month during the same calender months in the previous 5 years (p=0.033). Two cases presented during admission for COVID-19 with pulmonary involvement treated with methylprednisolone and tocilizumab. The other two cases were admitted to the hospital during the epidemic. All cases underwent central venous and urinary catheterization during admission. The etiology of HAIE was Enterococcus faecalis (2 cases), Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans (one case each). A source of infection was identified in three cases (central venous catheter, peripheral venous catheter, sternal wound infection, respectively). One patient was operated on. Two patients died during hospital admission.

Conclusions: The incidence of HAIE during COVID-19 pandemic in our institution was higher than usual. In order to reduce the risk of this serious infection, optimal catheter care and early treatment of every local infection should be prioritized during coronavirus outbreaks.

Keywords: Coronavirus; Cross-infection; Echocardiography; Endocarditis; Enterococcus faecalis; Transesophageal.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

References

    1. Zhou P.1, Liu Z., Chen Y., Xiao Y., Huang X., Fan X.G. Bacterial and fungal infections in COVID-19 patients: A matter of concern. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2020 [Epub ahead of print] - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ong C.W.M., Goletti D. Impact of the global COVID-19 outbreak on the management of other communicable diseases. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2020 doi: 10.5588/ijtld.20.0140. [Epub ahead of print] - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wahidi M.M., Shojaee S., Lamb C.R., Ost D., Maldonado F., Eapen G. The use of bronchoscopy during the COVID-19 pandemic: CHEST/AABIP guideline and expert panel report. Chest. 2020 [Epub ahead of print] - PMC - PubMed
    1. Peloso A., Moeckli B., Oldani G., Triponez F., Toso C. Response of a European surgical department to the COVID-19 crisis. Swiss Med Wkly. 2020 [Epub ahead of print] - PubMed
    1. Gackowski A., Lipczyńska M., Lipiec P., Szymański P. Echocardiography during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: expert opinion of the Working Group on Echocardiography of the Polish Cardiac Society. Kardiol Pol. 2020 Apr 24;78(4):357–363. - PubMed