Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Infective Endocarditis Management and Outcomes: Analysis of a National Clinical Database

COVID-19 has widely affected health care delivery, but its impact on the management of infective endocarditis (IE), including valve surgery, is uncertain. We compared the national trends in admissions, demographics, and outcomes of IE before and after COVID-19 onset, using a national sample of IE admissions between 2016 and 2022 from the Vizient Clinical Database. The pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 time periods were separated by the start of the second quarter of 2020, the time during which the COVID-19 pandemic was declared. For all admissions and for admissions involving valve surgery, pre-COVID-19 versus post-COVID-19 baseline characteristics and outcomes were compared using 2-sample t tests or chi-square tests. Propensity score-matched cohorts were similarly compared. Before COVID-19, there were 82,867 overall and 11,337 valve-related surgical admissions, and after COVID-19, there were 45,672 overall and 6,322 valve-related surgical admissions. In the matched analysis for all admissions, the in-hospital mortality increased from 11.4% to 12.4% after COVID-19 onset (p <0.001); in-hospital stroke (4.9% vs 6.0%, p <0.001), myocardial infarction (1.3% vs 1.4%, p = 0.03), and aspiration pneumonia (1.8% vs 2.4%, p <0.001) also increased, whereas other complications remained stable. In the matched analysis of surgical admissions, there was decreased in-hospital mortality (7.7% vs 6.7%, p = 0.03) and intensive care unit stay (8.5 ± 12.5 vs 8.0 ± 12.6 days, p = 0.04); other outcomes remained stable. In conclusion, patients admitted with IE after COVID-19 were more medically complex with worsened outcomes and mortality, whereas patients who underwent valve surgery had stable outcomes and improved mortality despite the pandemic.