Switzerland: coronary and structural heart interventions from 2010 to 2015

In 2015, Switzerland had a population of 8.3 million inhabitants. Since the first coronary angioplasty performed by Andreas Grüntzig in Zurich in 1977, the number of percutaneous procedures has steadily increased. The aim of this report is to summarise the current state of catheter-based cardiac interventions in adults in the country and to detail trends between 2010 and 2015. Since 1987, the Working Group for Interventional Cardiology of the Swiss Society of Cardiology has collected annually aggregate data from all facilities with cardiac catheterisation laboratories in the country. In 2015, a total of 37 institutions covered 17 of the 26 Swiss cantons. Over the six-year period, there was a continuous increase in the number of coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) (median increase rate of 3.2%/year for coronary angiography and of 2.6%/year for PCI). Notable was the adoption of the transradial approach for PCI, going from a median rate of 17% in 2012 to 51.9% in 2015. With respect to structural heart interventions, the number of patent foramen ovale as well as atrial septal defect closures has remained stable, while the number of transcatheter aortic valve implantations and transcatheter mitral valve repairs has shown a fourfold increase.