Our editorial¹ was designed to provoke debate and alert cardiologists, many of whom were unaware, of the publication of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy guidelines. Despite the comments made by the respondents, we believe that most will agree that endocarditis is a severe disease, that the microbiological epidemiology is not just limited to dental procedures and that there is no robust proof of the efficacy or non-efficacy of antibiotic prophylaxis.

The unwanted effects of antibiotics …