The German Society for Thoracic, Cardiac and Vascular Surgery (DGTHG) reported: "In 2017, the approximately 1,000 heart surgeons working in Germany performed 184,789 heart operations. 12.4 percent of the patients had to be operated on as emergencies".
Coronary bypass surgery would be the most common heart surgery procedure in Germany, and then heart valve surgery in particular.
"In 2016, a total of 33,451 heart valve operations were performed, 65.4 percent of which were performed using the heart-lung machine. Among the most frequent heart valve diseases requiring cardiac surgery, which are often age-related, are aortic valve stenosis (narrowing of the aortic valve) and mitral valve insufficiency (leakage of the mitral valve).
The structured cooperation in the cardiac team in cardiac medicine is still advocated and strengthened by numerous guidelines and directives. Patient care benefits from consensus building in the interdisciplinary cardiac team.
Details: dgthg.de (Presse)
