Main Article Content

Issues in Medicine: Prevention of infective endocarditis in developing countries – justifiable caution?


A Parrish
B Maharaj

Abstract

The internationally accepted practice of prescribing prophylactic antibiotics to individuals at risk of infective endocarditis has come under scrutiny. There are no published high-quality randomised controlled trials of the intervention, but new insights have emerged. Bacteraemic episodes are common following simple activities such as brushing teeth. Endocarditis following procedures is extremely rare, and systematic reviews of the evidence for prophylactic
antibiotics have failed to demonstrate efficacy.

Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 2078-5135
print ISSN: 0256-9574