Smacc

David Carr delivers an “old fashioned” talk, presenting his approach to the diagnosis and treatment of endocarditis in acute medicine. Whilst some may turn their nose up at what David describes as esoteric bedside medicine, the rare diagnosis of endocarditis is a bad diagnosis. It carries with it a mortality rate of between 15-30%. David attempts to rebrand endocarditis and make it sexy again. Who? There are four main suspects of getting endocarditis. If you turn up to David’s Emergency Department having had a cardiac valve replacement, the assumption is that you have endocarditis. 1% of these patient per year will develop endocarditis. A valve replacement plus fever or feeling unwell should raise the suspicion even higher. People who inject intravenous drugs are the second population of suspects for endocarditis.15% of people who inject IV drugs entering the hospital with a fever will have endocarditis. You must respect this population, and they need to come to the hospital in these instances. Marantic endoc