Dontal Manipulations as the Predisposing Factor of Bacterial Endocarditis

Abstract

Introduction:

In bacterial endocarditis the question often arises regarding the circumstances that permit hacteremia. It is a well recognized fact that it is often impossible to tell when the original invasion of bacteria took place, since the disease begins in most instances, in an insidious manner, not preceeded by any previous noticeable infection that could serve as a focus of entry. Material and Methods:
Blood for culturing was taken from patients admitted as suspected cases of infective endoc arditis. Patients history was taken as regards to the predisposing factors and correlation was made with the results of blood cultures.

Results:
Predisposing factors.

Table I shows that a total of 26 patients were studied as suspected endocarditis cases. Out of these 4 gave history of dental manipulations which gives a percentage of 15.38%. these 4 patients were all seen to be infected by streptococcus viridians.

Discussion:

In our work 15.38% of patients had history of dental caries which is comparable to the study done by Lerner and Weinstein, (1966), in which 13% of the patients had dental problems that might have predisposed them to infection of the heart valves. Therefore the recommendations of the American Heart Association (1977) of the use of parenteral prophylaxis with bactericidal drugs shld be practised. The American Hear t Association recommnd parenteral pecillin OflC to tV() hours before dental manipulations.