[National Registry of Adult's Cardiac Surgery: a time for decision]

In this paper the author makes an analysis on the context and challenges lived presently by the Portuguese Cardiac Surgery and concludes that part of the response lies on the development of registries of surgical activity, either national or supranational. This necessity was felt by the Portuguese Society for Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Surgery who took the initiative, in the year 2000, of the creation of National Registry dedicated to the Adult's Cardiac Surgery. Six years later, the aim of the project is still far from the expected, for several reasons that are analysed and lead to the conclusion that several urgent decisions are necessary to be undertaken, to save the project as well as the amount of work already done.