Cardiac surgery in Spain: an overview
The National Registry of Interventions of the Spanish Society of
Cardiovascular and Endovascular Surgery (SECCE) summarizes the annual
activity and outcomes in Spain in the public and private spheres and
reflects the state of the art of the specialty in our country. The
latest publication corresponds to the year 2018 (20), with 34,318
procedures performed in 62 centers, of which 23,141 were major cardiac
operations (20,717 with extracorporeal circulation). Among major
acquired diseases (21,082 procedures), isolated valve surgery
predominates, followed by coronary artery bypass surgery. Transcatheter
procedures are included in the registry. The average number of
interventions per center was 551 (66–2,166) with a wide dispersion
between hospitals (55% of centers performed between 300 and 600
interventions), also highlighting significant regional variability,
undoubtedly related to the Spanish political and administrative
structure.