Antibiotics for prevention of endocarditis: time to scale up? Not yet!

Heartbeat: prevention of atrial fibrillation progression

“…Habib and Iung4 summarise the evolution of guideline recommendations about antibiotic prophylaxis for prevention of IE and take a critical look at the previous evidence. Although the current study by Thornhill and colleagues3 raises concern, it is a retrospective study, lacks microbiological data, does not prove that pre-procedure antibiotics would prevent IE and thus is not sufficient to warrant a change in recommendations at this point.…”

“…Although the current study by Thornhill and colleagues3 raises concern, it is a retrospective study, lacks microbiological data, does not prove that pre-procedure antibiotics would prevent IE and thus is not sufficient to warrant a change in recommendations at this point. Instead, Habib and Iung4 argue that we should focus on prevention of nosocomial IE, which accounts for 1/3 of IE cases, by increased attention to optimal hygiene measures in patients undergoing invasive procedures.…”