Invasive Procedures Are Associated with Bacterial Endocarditis

Invasive diagnostic or therapeutic medical procedures may trigger infective endocarditis caused by transient bacteremia. Whether antimicrobial prophylaxis would reduce the risk is an issue of debate. Recent US and British guidelines on antimicrobial prophylaxis for dental and other invasive procedures restrict or eliminate patient groups for whom such prophylaxis is recommended. Interestingly, increased endocarditis incidence has paralleled the guidelines' implementation, suggesting that antimicrobial prophylaxis may help to prevent endocarditis after some medical procedures.

A nationwide Swedish case-crossover study quantified the excess risk for infective endocarditis associated with invasive medical and surgical procedures in 7013 adult i…