Prolonged antimicrobial prophylaxis following cardiac device procedures increases preventable harm: insights from the VA CART program

Background The rate of cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) infection is increasing coincident with an increase in the number of device procedures. Preprocedural antimicrobial prophylaxis reduces CIED infections; however, there is no evidence that prolonged postprocedural antimicrobials additionally reduce risk. Thus, we sought to quantify the harms associated with this approach. Objective To measure the association between...