Tag Archives: antibiotics

Introduction A major contributor to the cost of a patient’s care is the number of days occupying hospital beds. In a cardiology department, there are some patients that require long-term antibiotics, such as those with infective endocarditis or infected prosthetic devices. While most of these high-risk patients require some duration of monitoring for complications and deterioration as inpatients, there are patients who may, after a period of observation, be stable enough to be discharged home with outpatient intravenous therapy. In this report, we describe our experience with intravenous antibiotic therapy for patients with cardiology diagn

This change followed approaches to Sir Andrew Dillon by the widow of a patient with a replacement aortic valve who died from infective endocarditis (IE) developing after unprotected dental scaling. Her case included: evidence that antibiotic prophylaxis is effective in people at high risk of IE having high-risk dental procedures;3 the observation that the incidence of IE in the UK has accelerated above the global background rise since the original 2008 NICE guidance;4 a change in the law on consent.5-7  It is now necessary for dentists to appraise their patient of the differences between NICE and other guidelines, if it is likely that they

Introduction Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Chronic subclinical inflammation is a key recognised process in the pathogenesis of CHD, and may play an important role in atherogenesis. Figure 1. Atherosclerotic plaque rupture Atherosclerosis is a complex multi-factorial disease process, which is initiated at the endothelium in response to various forms of injurious stimuli (shear stress, oxidative stress, arterial pressure changes) including inflammation. These factors appear to alter the endothelial cell’s capacity to maintain homeostasis and vascular tone and leads to the so-called endothelial ‘dysfun

Dear Sirs, There has been much debate regarding the prophylactic prescribing of antibiotics in patients deemed at risk of developing infective endocarditis (IE) as a result of certain dental procedures.1 The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have produced differing guidelines for dental practitioners, who may decide to accept one particular code entirely, or a modified version based on discussion with local cardiology departments. This culture of debate amongst cardiologists, dentists and patients regarding best interest,