Infective endocarditis in children: state of the art

Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infection of the endocardium and/or heart valves. Although more common in adults than in children, it is important to identify and treat IE because of its significant morbidity and mortality. This review summarizes the main features involved in the IE pathogenesis and treatment to reduce and prevent IE risk. A comprehensive search of published literature using the PubMed (HTTP:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/) database was carried out to identify all articles published in English in peer-reviewed journals. The search terms included (“Infective Endocarditis”) AND (“Young” OR “Children” OR “Adolescence”).