Bansal A, Cremer PC, Jaber WA, et al. - Via analyzing data from the National Inpatient Sample database, researchers investigated the differential impact of gender on the utilization and outcomes of valve replacement surgery for infective endocarditis.

• From 2004 to 2015, hospitalization of a total of 81,942 patients with a primary diagnosis of infective endocarditis was recorded; 44.31% of these were women.

• Overall cardiac valve replacement (6.92% vs 12.12%), aortic valve replacement (3.32% vs 8.46%), mitral valve replacement (4.60% vs 5.57%), and combined aortic and mitral valve replacement (0.85% vs 1.81%) were less frequently performed in women but there were similar in‐hospital mortality rates.

• There appeared an increase in the overall rates of cardiac valve replacement from 11.76% to 13.96% in men and from 6.34% to 9.26% in women and a decline in in‐hospital mortality in both men and women.

• Among the patients undergoing valve replacement surgery, women were reported to have higher in‐hospital mortality (9.94% vs 6.99%).

• Overall findings suggest the existence of a treatment bias with underutilization of valve surgeries for infective endocarditis in women.