Microbiology of Cardiac Device Infections in a Tertiary Hospital

A cardiac device (CD) infection is a very important challenge for cardiology and clinical microbiology specialists, because of the increasing use of implantable CDs. Several host- and procedure-related factors increase the risk of CD infection.  A CD infection commonly involves a permanent pacemaker (PPM) or an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) device, which like any other foreign body can become infected. Cardiac device infection may be a primary infection when the device and/or pocket itself is the source of infection, usually due to contamination at the time of implant or a secondary infection due to bacteremia from a different source contaminating the leads and/or the device and/or the pocket... (excerpt)