Chronic Antibiotic Suppression of Infected Cardiovascular Devices: Data from the Real World

Kudos to this group from the Mayo Clinic for publishing this paper on the outcomes of patients receiving chronic antibiotic suppression for infected implantable cardiovascular electronic devices. This is a real world clinical problem, and requires a real world analysis, one that may not be optimal but that may just satisfice.

Much of what we do is based on little evidence and many knowledge gaps exist.  Many clinical questions simply cannot be answered by randomized, prospective, blinded trials.  I mean, what industry or government agency would pay for a prospective, randomized trial of chronic antibiotic suppression for implantable devices? 

There is no academic glory, by way of grant prestige, in studying this or other vexing, non-research fundable clinical questions.  

Well done.