Abstract

FELITTI, Héctor; PETTINARI, Flavio; MARTINEZ, Griselda T.  and  BORRACCI, Raúl A.. Assessment of the Number of Cardiac Surgeries in Argentina. Rev. argent. cardiol. [online]. 2007, vol.75, n.5, pp.374-377. ISSN 1850-3748.

Although cardiac surgery databases exist in different countries, Argentina lacks the national registries necessary to know and plan for this practice in the context of the sanitary activity of the country. With the aim of reporting an annual estimation of the number of cardiac surgeries performed in adults throughout the country, a national retrospective registry of all cardiac surgeries performed in adults between July 2005 and June 2006 all over the country was carried out, with the percentages of each region and use rate. The degree of inequity in the distribution of surgeries was assessed with Lorenz's curve. To justify regional variations, the use rates were correlated to the percentage of the population without health plan, and the percentage of population with "unsatisfied basic needs". Within the period, 10,476 surgeries were performed in 172 centers throughout the country, which indicates a use rate of one surgery each 2,673 inhabitants per year (374 surgeries per million), below world standards (500 to 1,000 per million). This annual retrospective registry allowed estimating for the first time the number of cardiac surgeries in all the country, their regional distribution and use rate. Findings in the Lorenz's curve and Gini's coefficient would suggest and inadequate distribution of the access to cardiac surgery for the population. These data are an initial approach for the implementation of a wider and permanent national prospective registry.

Keywords : Thoracic Surgery; Records; Database; Argentina.

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