Cardiac Surgery Capacity Development in Emerging Countries

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of mortality worldwide and 80% of these deaths are from low-and-middle income countries. Every 3 out 10 people with cardiovascular disease will require surgical intervention, yet the vast majority of patients do not have access to cardiac and thoracic surgical services. Sub-Saharan Africa has only 22 cardiac surgical centres to serve 1.1 billion people with an average of 1.6 open heart operations per million population. In this chapter we discuss the burden of cardiothoracic disease in low-and-middle income countries, the unmet need for surgical care, and the work needed to improve surgical services.