Management of intracardiac device and prosthetic infections requires a multidisciplinary approach involving cardiologists, surgeons, infectious disease physicians, and microbiologists.
May support coordinated care for device infections; leaves open optimal team models and outcomes in prospective studies.
I nfection of an intracardiac device or prosthesis represents one of the more common reasons for infectious diseases consultation in many hospital-based practices. As more patients receive pacemakers or implanted defibrillators and undergo valve replacement, it stands to reason that we will see more patients with infections involving these devices. The management of these challenging infections requires knowledge of both the medical and surgical literature and a multidisciplinary approach involving cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, infectious diseases physicians and microbiologists.
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Johnston et al. (2004) studied this question.
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