Chemoprophylaxis for bacterial endocarditis--a survey of current practice in London.

1820 medical and dental practitioners were circulated with a questionnaire regarding their use of antibiotics to prevent bacterial endocarditis. The response rate was 48.2%. Analysis of results suggests that antibiotics are believed to prevent endocarditis and are in common use for this purpose. However, the regimes used differ markedly from published current recommendations. Different antibiotics that are often inactive against the likely infecting organisms are used or, where recommended antibiotics are used, the doses are often inadequate. The timing of administration of prophylaxis also usually differs from current recommendations with antibiotics being prescribed for unnecessarily long periods. Patient abnormalities and procedures for which prophylaxis is given are generally in line with those considered to predispose to endocarditis. It appears that communication problems between doctors and dentists regarding the use of prophylaxis are less of a problem than previously thought.