Adolescents diagnosed with infectious endocarditis treated at North Pediatric Hospital in Santiago de Cuba

Introduction: infectious endocarditis is one of the main prototypes of cardiovascular diseases not only on a global scale, but also at a national level. Objective:to characterize clinically and epidemiologically the adolescents diagnosed with infectious endocarditis treated at North Pediatric Hospital of Santiago de Cuba from 2010 to 2017. Method: an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out. The target group comprised 20 adolescents with the diagnosis of infectious endocarditis treated at Norte Pediatric Hospital of Santiago de Cuba during the period 2010 to 2017. The information was collected from the medical records. Results: the age group of 10 to 12 years (45 %) and male sex (65 %) predominated. Fever and tachycardia were the most frequent clinical manifestations, present in 100 % of adolescents. Ventricular septal defect constituted the most significant comorbidity with 30 %. Blood cultures were positive in 75 % of the cases; there was only one patient who died in the series (5 %) and 75 % progressed satisfactorily to health recovery. Conclusions: infectious endocarditis in adolescence is more frequent in males, having several forms of presentation; it is also directly associated with the presence of other diseases, having a low mortality in the series studied.