German Heart Surgery Report 2015: The Annual Updated Registry of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

On the basis of a long-standing voluntary registry, which was founded by the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (GSTCVS), well-defined data of all heart, thoracic, and vascular surgery procedures performed in 78 German heart surgery departments during 2015 are analyzed. In 2015, a total of 103,967 heart surgery procedures (implantable cardioverter defibrillator, pacemaker, and extracardiac procedures without ECC excluded) were submitted to the database. Approximately 14.8% of the patients were at least 80 years old, resulting in an increase of 0.6% compared with the data of 2014. For 38,601 isolated coronary artery bypass grafting procedures (relationship on-/off-pump: 5:1), the unadjusted inhospital mortality was 2.7%. Concerning the 32,346 isolated heart valve procedures (including 10,606 catheter-based implantations) an unadjusted inhospital mortality of 4.4% was observed.This annual updated registry of the GSTCVS represents voluntary public reporting by accumulating actual information for nearly all heart surgical procedures in Germany, demonstrates advancements in heart medicine, and enables internal/external quality assurance for all participants. In addition, the registry demonstrates that the provision of heart surgery in Germany is appropriate and patients are treated nationwide in a round-the-clock service.