Revised AHA Guidelines for Prevention of Infective Endocarditis

Antibiotics solely to prevent infective endocarditis are now recommended for only the highest-risk patients and, even in this group, for very few procedures.

Target Population: Physicians and dentists who perform procedures on patients with cardiac abnormalities

Sponsoring Organizations: The American Heart Association, the American Dental Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society

Type: Evidence-based consensus statement from a multispecialist writing group. This document updates the American Heart Association’s guidelines for prevention of infective endocarditis (IE), last revised in 1997.

Key Points: Recent findings have cast doubt on the benefits of antibiotic prophylaxis for dental procedures, because bacteremia associated with such procedures is usually transient, and transient bacteremia occurs much more commonly during routine daily…

Reviewing Author

Robert S. Baltimore, MD