What is Bacterial Endocarditis?
Bacterial endocarditis is an infection of the heart’s inner lining (endocardium) or the heart valves. This can damage or even destroy the heart valves. It occurs when bacteria in the bloodstream (bacteremia) lodge on abnormal heart valves or other damaged heart tissue.

Certain bacteria normally live on parts of your body, such as the mouth and upper respiratory system, the intestinal and urinary tracts, and the skin. Some surgical and dental procedures cause a brief bacteremia. Bacteremia is common after many invasive procedures, but only certain bacteria commonly cause endocarditis.

How can Bacterial Endocarditis be prevented?
Not all cases of endocarditis can be prevented, because we don’t always know when a bacteremia occurs. For example, antibiotics are prescribed before certain dental or surgical procedures. These include procedures most likely to produce bacteremia with organisms that commonly cause endocarditis:

• professional teeth cleaning
• tonsillectomy or adenoidectomy
• examination of the respiratory passageways with a rigid bronchoscope
• certain types of surgery on the respiratory passageways, the gastrointestinal tract or the urinary tract
• gallbladder or prostate surgery

Antibiotics may be recommended for other types of procedures if the tissue is infected. This preventive step normally involves taking a dose of antibiotics an hour before the procedure.