Registro de actividades de la Sociedad Española de Angiología y Cirugía Vascular, año 2009

Abstract

Objective To describe the health care activities carried out by angiology and vascular surgery departments/units in Spain during 2009. Patients and methods Cross-sectional study. The surgical and endovascular procedures carried out in 2009 were recorded in 80 angiology and vascular surgery departments/units. A descriptive analysis was made, and the volume of activity was compared regarding the teaching accreditation and the previous year activity. Results There were a total of 64,764 hospital admissions, 28.5 % for emergencies and 71.5 % for scheduled admissions, with an overall mean stay of 7.8 days. As of 2009/12/31 the waiting list has more venous than arterial pathologies (10,241 vs 1,823). Direct arterial surgical activity was greater than in 2008 (42,982 vs 39,400) and consisted of 2,359 interventions in the supra-aortic trunk, 966 in upper limbs, 102 in the thoracic/thoraco-abdominal aorta, 3,507 in the anatomic aorto-iliac segment (1,219 for elective abdominal aortic aneurysms [AAA] and 447 for emergency AAA), and 1,265 interventions involving an extra-anatomic route, 132 in digestive tract arteries, 2,905 in the femoral-popliteal segment and 1,453 in the femoral-distal segment of the lower limbs. Venous surgery decreased (27,726 procedures vs 29,327 in 2008), with the most frequently performed intervention in venous surgery being for varicose veins (n = 22,164). Endovascular procedures also decreased (5,165 vs 8,229); 245 involved the supra-aortic trunk, 291 the upper limbs, 1,555 were for aortic aneurysms (208 thoracic and 1,347 abdominal), and 2,396 for lower limb arteries. In all, 278,901 examinations were carried out in the vascular laboratory (259,047 in 2008). The volume of activity was significantly higher in teaching centres than in non-teaching centres. Conclusions In comparison with 2008 arterial and vascular laboratory activities have increased, and venous surgical and endovascular activity has decreased. Teaching centres have a larger volume of activity than non teaching centres.