UK heart surgeons improve patients' survival

Heart surgeons in the United Kingdom have raised the standards expected of them, figures published last week by the Healthcare Commission show.

The data on survival of patients after heart surgery, issued by the independent healthcare regulator in England, cover 38 of the 39 hospitals in the UK that carry out major heart surgery (St Mary's Hospital, London, was unable to supply the data in the format required). The figures show that 96.5% of the 35 064 patients who underwent any kind of heart surgery in the year to March 2006 survived (left the hospital alive).

The commission looked in particular at survival of patients after the two most common heart operations: heart bypass and aortic valve replacement. …