FRIDAY, April 20 (HealthDay News) -- Only patients at the highest risk of infective endocarditis should have prophylactic antibiotic treatment before routine dental procedures, according to updated guidelines from the American Heart Association published in the April 19 issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. High-risk patients would include those with a history of endocarditis, a heart transplant or an artificial valve transplant.
Walter Wilson, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a scientific panel updated the 1997 guidelines on the prevention of infective endocarditis by examining the data on the risk and benefits of prophylactic antibiotics.
The researchers found that despite decades of antibiotic treatment before routine dental procedures, the risks -- including allergic reactions and antibiotic resistance -- outweighed the benefits for most patients. Therefore, only those at highest risk from endocarditis should be given antibiotics before dental interventions, the panel recommended. High-risk patients include former endocarditis patients, heart transplant and artificial heart valve recipients, and patients with some congenital heart conditions.
"The Committee concluded that only an extremely small number of cases of infective endocarditis might be prevented by antibiotic prophylaxis for dental procedures," the authors wrote. In addition, "administration of antibiotics solely to prevent endocarditis is not recommended for patients who undergo a genitourinary tract procedure."
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