A survey was conducted in order to gain a better understanding of actual practice policies followed by academically affiliated institutions regarding the use of prophylactic antibiotics during transesophageal echocardiography. Results revealed that 10 of the 20 centers routinely used intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis for high risk transesophageal echocardiography. However, 5 of the 20 centers did not use any prophylactic antibiotics routinely, and the remaining 5 centers used primarily oral prophylactic regimens. In addition, the type of patient that was considered high risk for which antibiotic prophylaxis was used differed among institutions. Practice guidelines in 4 of the 20 institutions have changed in the last 5 years. These findings demonstrate a wide variation in the actual practice policies of different institutions, probably reflecting, in part, the lack of convincing evidence that prophylactic antibiotics benefit this subgroup of patients.
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