title: Dental implants in patients at high risk for infective endocarditis: a preliminary study.
abstract: The safety of dental implant placement in patients at high risk for infective endocarditis (IE) has never been shown. The outcome of osseointegrated implants in patients with artificial heart valves or with a history of an infected valve is not known. In this article we describe our experience of dental implant placement in patients at high risk for IE. A retrospective study was conducted on patients at high risk for IE who underwent dental implant placement. All the patients received prophylactic antibiotic treatment before the surgical procedure, in accordance with the relevant American Heart Association guidelines. A total 13 patients underwent 16 surgical procedures for the placement of 57 dental implants over a period of 17 years. Within the follow-up period, no case of IE was reported. Two implants failed before exposure in one patient, one patient suffered from mitral valve thrombosis 14 days after the dental procedure, and another patient suffered a stroke 6 months following treatment. Despite the limitation of the small group of patients and the known low incidence of IE, dental implants may be regarded as a legitimate procedure for patients at high risk for IE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine, The Hebrew University - Hadassah Faculty of Dental Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Findler
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, The Hebrew University - Hadassah Faculty of Dental Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chackartchi
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial surgery, The Hebrew University - Hadassah Medical Center and Faculty of Dental Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel. Electronic address: eran@mail.huji.ac.il.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Regev
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019072:Antibiotic Prophylaxis; D003758:Dental Implantation, Endosseous / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004696:Endocarditis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: dental implants; high risk patients; infective endocarditis.