Heart surgery in Czechoslovakia

: In 1985, the cardiovascular Section of the Society of Surgery decided to start a registry of cardiac surgery procedures. Since then, basic data on surgical treatment of patients with heart disease have been collected each year. The following conclusions have been drawn from the data available: 1. The situation in cardiac surgery in Czechoslovakia is catastrophic. Czechoslovakia ranks among nations with the lowest numbers of operations per population in Europe. The most critical situation exists in IHD. 2. The standard of care provided to patients in individual areas of Czechoslovakia is about the same. 3. The critical lack of funds led to a decrease in the number of operations performed in 1990. 4. Organization of health care is poor, as indicated by length of hospital stay longer than that in the industrialized nations. 5. It is crucial to allocate more money to departments of cardiac surgery.