Surgery for infective endocarditis complicated by cerebral embolism: a consecutive series of 375 patients.

Objective: To determine the influence of silent and symptomatic cerebral embolism on outcome of urgent/emergent surgery after acute infective endocarditis (AIE).

Methods: From a total of 1571 patients with AIE admitted to our institution between May 1995 and March 2012 about one-quarter (375 patients; mean age, 61.8 ± 13.