There are no guidelines on the practice of antibiotic prophylaxis in pacemaker implantation resulting in wide variation in practice. We sought to investigate this and identify areas for further study and improvement. Using an email questionnaire, followed up with a telephone call if no response, all 121 adult National Health Service hospitals in England implanting pacemakers were asked about use of systemic prophylactic antibiotics at implantation. Data were obtained from 61 hospitals (50.4% of total contacted), covering a wide geographic distribution.
Advertisement
For UK healthcare professionals only