gcc,
Thanks for the post. As a patient at the clinic, I encourage you to call your Cardiologist here to find out his/her personal preferences before actually undergoing surgery.
Guidlines for antibiotic prophylaxis depend on a persons risk for developing
endocarditisEndocarditis
Infectious endocarditis
Infective endocarditis, and the likelyhood of the particular procedure to produce the release of a bacteria into the blood that can cause the disease.
Given your prior valve surgery you fall into a high risk category based on your outcome if you were to deveolp
endocarditisEndocarditis
Infectious endocarditis
Infective endocarditis. While a surgical
incisionIncision for abdominal laparoscopy
Incision for lung biopsy
Incision for pleural tissue biopsy
Incision for thyroid gland surgery itself is not criteria for antibiotic prophylaxis,
incisionIncision for abdominal laparoscopy
Incision for lung biopsy
Incision for pleural tissue biopsy
Incision for thyroid gland surgery through the bowel mucosa is and thus would require prophylaxis.
There are several regimens and some debate over the actual timing of prophylaxis, but they are best administered perioperatively so as to ensure adequet levels during and after the procedure. This would be the time that the bacteria would be in highest concetration in the bloodstream and your risk would also be highest.
Again, I encourage you to call your cardiologist to let him/her know you are undergoing a procedure.
Hope this helps