High incidence of late infective endocarditis in bovine jugular vein valved conduits

Bovine jugular vein (BJV) grafts (Medtronic, Inc, Minneapolis, Minn) are used to restore right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery continuity. Recent studies have associated these grafts with the development of infective endocarditis. The purpose of this study was to report the incidence of endocarditis in BJV grafts. All BJV grafts placed in the right ventricle-to-pulmonary artery position between 2001 and 2017 at our institution were included. Freedom from endocarditis was analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method and parametric survival regression models. Overall, 228 patients underwent placement of 253 BJV grafts. The median duration of conduit follow-up was 6 years (5 months to 14 years). Twenty-five conduits developed endocarditis, yielding an incidence of 10% at a median of 7.5 years after surgery. Median duration of symptoms before the diagnosis of endocarditis was 21 days (3-180 days). The most common infectious agents were viridans streptococci (n = 13; 52%). Freedom from endocarditis at 5 and 10 years was 97% and 77%, respectively. After controlling for confounders, BJV grafts had a higher incidence of endocarditis compared with homografts (P