Prevention
People with heart valve abnormalities, artificial valves, or congenital heart defects are recommended to take antibiotics before certain surgical, dental, and medical procedures so as to prevent infective endocarditis.
The efficacy of this preventive approach has not been studied on a large scale. Proof for a potential lack of effect doesn’t exist either. Hence prophylaxis continues to be recommended owing to the fatality of the disease.
The following is the list of procedures that mandate prophylactic antibiotics:
Surgical Procedures
- Heart valve replacement
- Open-heart surgery
- Removal of tonsils or adenoids
- Lung surgery
- Surgery on the intestines or bile ducts
- Prostate surgery
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Dental Procedures
- Tooth extraction
- Periodontal procedures such as gum surgery, scaling, root planing, and probing
- Placement of dental implants
- Replacement of a tooth that was knocked out
- Root canal surgery beyond the end of the root
- Placement of orthodontic bands beneath the gums
- Injection of an anesthetic into a ligament
- Cleanings if bleeding is expected to result
Medical Procedures
- Use of catheters or intravenous lines to provide fluids, nutrition, or drugs
- Bronchoscopy
- Cystoscopy
- Dilation of the esophagus
- Dilation of the urethra
- Endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (endoscopy, with injection of a dye that can be seen on x-rays, to remove gallstones in the bile duct)
- Sclerotherapy for varicose veins in the esophagus
