Mortality, morbidity, and cardiac surgery in Injection Drug Use (IDU)-associated versus non-IDU infective endocarditis: The need to expand substance use disorder treatment and harm reduction services.

Background: The addiction crisis is widespread, and unsafe injection practices among people who inject drugs (PWID) can lead to infective endocarditis.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of adult patients with definite or possible infective endocarditis admitted to a tertiary care center in Portland, Maine was performed over three-year period. Our primary objective was to examine differences in demographics, health characteristics, and health service utilization between injection drug use (IDU)-associated infective endocarditis and non-IDU infective endocarditis.