Patients with infective endocarditis undergoing cardiac surgery have distinct ROTEM profiles and more bleeding complications compared to patients without infective endocarditis.

The findings of this exploratory investigation show significantly altered coagulation profiles in patients with infective endocarditis, with concomitant hyper- and hypocoagulability. Furthermore, the incidence of bleeding complications and transfusion requirements were increased in patients with endocarditis. These results show the potential of ROTEM to detect coagulation abnormalities in patients with infective endocarditis. Existing point-of-care coagulation testing guided algorithms for optimizing perioperative coagulation management possibly need to be adjusted for these high-risk patients undergoing cardiac surgery.