SWEDEN: According to Karolinska Institutet recent study, since the recommendation of removing prophylactic antibiotics for infective endocarditis, there has been no significant increase in the disease.
Infectious endocarditis is a rare but deadly condition caused by bacterial infection of the heart valves that affects about 500 persons in Sweden each year. Infection is more likely in people who have congenital heart disease, artificial heart valves or have had prior endocarditis.
People at a higher risk of infective endocarditis in Sweden used to receive the antibiotic amoxicillin as a prophylactic before certain dental procedures, such as tooth extraction, tartar scraping and surgery. However, the country became one of the few that have abolished the oral health guideline that individuals with a higher risk of infective endocarditis (infection of the heart valves) be given prophylactic antibiotics.
According to a registry study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases by Karolinska Institutet, there has been no increase in this condition since the recommendation was discontinued in 2012.
Niko Vähäsarja, the lead author of the research, and colleagues conducted a study in which they found only small, statistically non-significant variations in morbidity and nothing that indicates a rise in this infection in the risk group since 2012. Hence, they supported the change in recommendation.
The study 'Infective endocarditis among high-risk individuals - before and after the cessation of antibiotic prophylaxis in dentistry: a national cohort study' has recently been published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
