Oral Infection Risk Evaluation for EP

Based on the oral findings of the examined participants, the risk of potential EP infections with oral origin was evaluated based on the presence of treatment need and/or oral foci, respectively. Therefore, three risk classes were defined: (A) The low-risk group reflected no dental or periodontal treatment need. (B) The moderate risk group included patients with dental and/or periodontal treatment need, but no potential oral foci. (C) The high-risk group (patients “at-risk” for EP infection with oral origin) consisted of patients with a potential oral focus for EP infection, including caries, touching the pulp chamber, severe periodontal treatment need (e.g., suppuration, endo-perio-lesion), apical radiolucencies (sign of chronic infection/inflammation), (partly) retained teeth with pericoronal inflammation, inflammation in jawbone or additional inflammatory findings. These findings were reported as potential oral foci in various patient groups before and were adopted for the current study [25 (link),26 (link),27 (link),28 (link)]. Those patients were referred to their family dentist/a special clinic for dental treatment, which was mandatory perquisite for EP insertion in those patients (Table 1). If the dental treatment was not possible until the time point two weeks prior to EP surgery, the EP insertion was deferred accordingly.
Within the cohort of the current study, the occurrence of early infectious complications in the first 3 months after EP insertion was recorded.