Congenital heart disease (CHD) represents a predisposing condition for the development of infective endocarditis (IE). In recent years, the reduction in the incidence of rheumatic heart disease, advances in cardiac surgery and the increased use of long-term central venous catheters in subjects without CHD have changed significantly the epidemiology of the disease. We sought to evaluate the epidemiology of EI in children in the north of France.

We retrospectively included all children<18years hospitalized for EI in 2008–2018 in 4 tertiary centres. Demographic, underlying conditions, echocardiography, microbiology and outcomes were collected.

We identified 64 episodes of IE in 60 children. Incidence was 3.07 cases for 10,000 paediatric hospitalisations (Table 1). Median age was 8years [0–13] and distribution was bimodal with peaks in infancy and adolescence. An organism pathogen was isolated in 87.5% of cases. The most common was Staphylococcus aureus (34%), then streptococcus (25%). At echocardiography, anomalies were vegetations (n=32), new valvular regurgitations (n=10), peri-valvular abscesses (n=2). Among cohort, 45 had a CHD (70%), 7 were preterm birth (11%), 2 had long-term central venous catheters and 10 no predisposition. No CHD group was significatively younger than CHD group. Among CHD patients, 38 (84%) had previous heart surgery and 10 presented an IE<2months after surgery. Pulmonary bioprosthetic valve were involved in 22 cases and mechanical valve in 3. Cardiac surgery was needed in 26 cases (41%) including valve replacement in half of them and were significatively higher in CHD group (P<0.05). Complications of IE occurred in 35 (58%) including emboli, mycotic aneurysm, cerebral haemorrhage and myocardial abscess.

IE mostly occurred in predisposed children. Morbidity is important with neurological impairment and valvular replacement in this young population at risk for recurrence.