Cardiothoracic surgery

The department:

• Annually conducts 1,200 open heart surgeries, 550 general thoracic surgeries, 35 heart transplants and 25 lung transplants.
• Is the first centre in Scandinavia with the da Vinci system for robot-assisted minimally invasive cardiac surgery.
• Performs comprehensive cardiothoracic surgeries, including all treatments for coronary and valvular disease.

In all aspects of cardiac surgery, Skåne University Hospital provides world-class results. For example, the one-year survival rate for heart transplants is 96.2% and the 30-day mortality rate (0.7%) for coronary bypass surgery at Skåne University Hospital is very low. As comparison, risk-adjusted mortality rates for isolated coronary bypass surgery in renowned American hospitals during 2011 were as follows (data from the Society for Thoracic Surgeons. 2011.):

• Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts - 1,9 %
• Cleveland Clinics, Cleveland, Ohio - 1,4 %
• Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts - 1,9 %
• Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Palo Alto, California - 2,1 %

The department has ten operating, board certified, cardiac surgeons. All are academic surgeons with long experience of cardiac surgery. There are 19 board certified cardiothoracic anaesthetists in the department’s operating theatre and intensive care unit. The full supporting team including the post-op ward, includes specialised nurses, nurse assistants and physiotherapists.

The intense research activity in the department covers all aspects of cardiac surgery and transplantation. The department produces around 60 publications per year in international peer reviewed scientific journals.