Infective endocarditis has a poor prognosis and a high mortality rate, meaning that the implementation of prophylactic antibiotic treatment is important. The present study investigates the risk of infective endocarditis and prophylactic antibiotic use in pediatric patients who underwent invasive dental interventions. Materials and methods. The demographic characteristics, the clinical interventions, comorbidities and prophylactic antibiotic use rates of the patients who underwent interventions under general anesthesia sedation were analyzed retrospectively. Results and discussion. Among the 6,718 pediatric patients, 52.4% were males and 47.6% were females, the mean age being of 10.5±4.4 years. Diabetes mellitus and congenital heart disease were the most common comorbidities. Antibiotic prophylaxis was performed in 1,023 (15.2%) patients before the operation. High-risk patients who developed infective endocarditis were identified as 5.0% (n=504). Out of the patients, 1.4 % (n=18) were allergic to penicillin or ampicillin. Conclusions. The specific health problems of the patients should be kept in mind, their involvement and informing before dental interventions in the event of clinical suspicion being crucial. Adequate and effective tissue concentration should be ensured at the time of incision, while an appropriate timing, the mode, dose and duration of antibiotic treatment are also important.
Keywords:- antibiotic prophylaxis
- dental interventions.
- general anesthesia
- infective endocarditis