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.