Infective endocarditis epidemiology over five decades: a systematic review

To Assess changes in infective endocarditis (IE) epidemiology over the last 5 decades. We searched the published literature using PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE from inception until December 2011. Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA were also included. Criteria for inclusion in this systematic review included studies with reported IE microbiology, IE definition, description of population studied, and time frame. Two authors independently extracted data and assessed manuscript quality. One hundred sixty studies (27,083 patients) met inclusion criteria. Among hospital-based studies (n=142; 23,606 patients) staphylococcal IE percentage increased over time, with coagulase-negative staphylococcus (CNS) increasing over each of the last 5 decades (p