U.K. hemophilia treaters' knowledge of risk assessment for prolonged bleeding associated with dental procedures.

INTRODUCTION: Optimal delivery of dental care for adults with congenital bleeding disorders (CBD) requires close collaboration between hemophilia treaters and dentists. AIM: To explore U.K. hemophilia treaters' knowledge of dental procedures and associated hemostatic management in adults with CBD. METHOD: Staff (N = 180) from N = 60 hemophilia facilities in the United Kingdom were invited to participate in a questionnaire-based study using a web-based tool. The questionnaire assessed participants' knowledge, adherence and appropriateness of application of U.K. guidance on hemostatic management of common dental procedures. RESULTS: The response rate was 23% of treaters (n = 41) from 62% (n = 32) hemophilia facilities. Individual participants (87%; n = 34) reported they adhered to guidelines, though knowledge of guidance was poor with only 36% (n = 15) applying guidance appropriately in 3 common dental scenarios. There was a tendency for participants to assign the use of systemic hemostatic measures independent of the agreed bleeding risk associated with the proposed dental procedure. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: While hemophilia treaters were aware of current guidelines, their knowledge of the guidelines and ability to risk assess dental procedures was poor. There was a tendency to overprescribe systemic hemostatic measures for dental procedures. Education initiatives to aid decision making are needed.

Antibiotic prophylaxis in oral healthcare - the agreement between Swedish recommendations and evidence.

BACKGROUND: Almost all (17/20) Swedish counties have pharmaceutical committees that establish recommendations for the use of antibiotic prophylaxis in oral healthcare.Objective To evaluate the evidence for the use of antibiotic prophylaxis in oral healthcare and the agreement between Swedish recommendations and evidence. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted a systematic literature search in PubMed and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register. The MeSH terms 'antibiotic prophylaxis' and 'dentistry' were used in the database search. Abstracts were reviewed according to specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of 186 articles were read in full text by the four authors independently. Data extraction and interpretation of data was carried out using a pre-defined protocol. In the end, one case-control study was included for evaluation of evidence. RESULTS: The case-control study included patients with specific cardiac conditions. The study reported a 49% protective efficacy (odds ratio: 0.51) of antibiotic prophylaxis for first-time episodes of endocarditis within 30 days of procedure. This result was not statistically significant. The quality of the evidence was low. No studies were evaluated on patients with other medical conditions. The recommendations included several cardiac and other medical conditions for which there is a lack of evidence or no evidence to support the use of antibiotic prophylaxis. CONCLUSIONS: There is a lack of evidence to support the use of antibiotic prophylaxis. To avoid the risk of adverse events from antibiotics and the risk of developing resistant bacterial strains, the use of antibiotic prophylaxis should be minimised and recommendations in Sweden should be revised to be more evidence-based.

Heart transplants--assessment of dental procedures.

The object of this study was to evaluate the effects of dental foci on survival rates and rejection episodes in heart transplant recipients. Therefore, in a retrospective longitudinal study we studied 74 heart transplant recipients at the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery and Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, University of Münster. Study patients were divided into groups: those in which dental foci had been verified (n = 31) and those without dental foci (n = 43). Statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier life table analysis, and the log-rank test. Before heart transplantation, patients were screened clinically and radiographically to determine the extent of dental foci. Postoperatively, patients were evaluated dentally and medically to identify the impact of dental foci on the incidence of systemic and oral infections, frequency and severity of rejection episodes, mortality, and complications arising during dental treatment. By comparing the mortality, infection and rejection rates in the various groups no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05) were found between patients. Despite immunosuppression, extended inflammatory processes such as abscess formation or viral stomatitis were not found in the oral cavity. We therefore suggest that patients suffering from the symptoms of severe heart failure need not be subjected to rigorous preoperative dental treatment.

Cost-effectiveness of infective endocarditis prophylaxis for mitral valve prolapse with or without a mitral regurgitant murmur.

To assess the cost-effectiveness of prevention of infective endocarditis (IE) and to calculate cost-effectiveness of currently recommended regimens in patients with mitral valve prolapse (MVP), data on risk of death, complications, and health-care use, and cumulative incremental health-care costs due to the occurrence of IE were combined with data on the prevalence and manifestations of MVP, estimated years of life lost, and efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis. Effectiveness and costs of standard endocarditis prophylaxis regimens were calculated per IE case prevented and years of life saved. Under the most likely scenario, oral amoxicillin prophylaxis for all MVP patients would prevent 32 cases of IE per million dental procedures at approximate costs of $119,000 per prevented case and $21,000 per year of life saved. Limiting prophylaxis to patients with mitral murmurs would prevent 80 cases of IE per million procedures at costs of about $19,000 per prevented case and $3,000 per year of life saved. Erythromycin prophylaxis was slightly less expensive than amoxicillin per benefit because of lower cost and lack of drug anaphylaxis, whereas intravenous ampicillin was 7 to 30 times more costly. Sensitivity analyses suggested that erythromycin prophylaxis might be cost-saving under some scenarios, whereas intravenous ampicillin use might cause net loss of life. Thus, prevention with oral antibiotics of the cumulative morbidity and incremental health care costs due to IE in MVP patients is reasonably cost-effective for MVP patients with mitral murmurs.