[Infectious endocarditis as a surgical problem in Russia].

Infectious endocarditis (IE) is mainly a surgical problem and requires an integration of efforts of specialists of different fields for its treatment. Successful treatment of this severe disease is to be based on the early diagnosis and early operation. So IE should be estimated as a surgical pathology and this nosological form must be included in all manuals on general surgery and studying infectious endocarditis must be included in the programs of training doctors at surgical series of lectures. Such interpretation of this question will change doctors' mentality and will lead to the earliest admission of the patient with this pathology to specialized cardiosurgical hospital and will allow to avoid severe disabling complications of IE, to increase the number of valve-saving operations and to improve prognosis in the treatment of this disease.