Cardiac surgery in Australia: The National Heart Foundation of Australia registry

The National Heart Foundation (NHF) of Australia publishes an annual report on all cardiac surgery performed in Australia. Only 2 other countries have national cardiac surgery databases. In the U.S.A., the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) has established a large voluntary database which does not, however, include complete national statistics. The STS uses Bayesian analysis to predict operative risk. A similar system in the U.K. has been useful for predicting surgical morbidity and mortality. The most recent NHF report, published in August 1993, covers surgical procedures performed in 1991. In that year, 16,688 procedures were performed, a 10.3% increase over the previous year. Operative mortality was 2.6%. Most procedures were coronary artery bypass grafts (69.4% or 11,586 procedures). Although the NHF registry is a valuable resource, it may be necessary to expand this national database so that national results can be analysed in greater detail.