Cardiovascular surgery in Spain in 2019. Interventions registry from the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery (SECCE)

The Spanish Society of Cardiovascular and Endovascular Surgery (SECCE) reports the results of the 2019 registry of the surgical activity in our country. This year represents the 31th consecutive year in which this report is published. The participation in this registry is anonymous and voluntary, and it is based on the analysis of the information gathered from 57 centers with activity in cardiovascular surgery in our country, and the confidentiality of the individual data of each center is warranted. For the first time, in the last 15 years, a tendency is broken and fewer hospitals have communicated their activity. In certain cases, estimations have to be calculated in order to make comparisons possible. The registry reports the global activity in our country, the observed mortality and the estimated mortality risk, stratified in different types of procedures. The global cardiac surgical activity in our country remains stable, with an observed mortality that is adequately adjusted to the estimated surgical risk. During 2019, a total of 33,660 procedures of cardiovascular surgery were performed. Major heart surgery was performed in 21,525 cases, among which 19,657 procedures of adult cardiac surgery and 1,868 procedures of congenital cardiac surgery. Out of those, 19,221 procedures were performed under extracorporeal circulation (CEC). Congenital and transplant registries are specifically analysed in their corresponding reports. Among the 19,720 procedures of acquired major cardiac surgery, isolated valve surgery was predominant (8,607 procedures), followed by coronary by-pass surgery (4,734), aorta surgery (2,315) and combined coronary-valvular surgery (1,983). Vascular surgery and transcatheter activity are also reported. The information derived from this national registry allows to know the state-of-the-art of the surgical specialty in our country, through the knowledge of the surgical activity, the risk profile and the observed results, which is a keystone for an adequate evaluation of the quality of the health care that we deliver to the patients affected with cardiovascular pathologies. Risk adjusted mortality seems adequately adjusted, though important local differences are observed. (C) 2021 Sociedad Espanola de Cirugia Cardiovascular y Endovascular. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U.