[Data and quality assurance tools from a new cardiac center in Denmark]

Open heart surgery was established at Aalborg Hospital in 1992. In the time period March to December 1992 cardiac anaesthesia was administered in 98 operations utilizing extracorporeal circulation and cardiopulmonary bypass. Mortality in coronary artery surgery was 1.6%. All patients were prospectively registered using a new dataform allowing registration of 228 patients related variables concerning preoperative status, course of anaesthesia and perfusion, surgery and postoperative intensive care. Quality assurance in cardiac surgery requires risk factor analysis, and registration of numerous data is a necessary tool. The software for our database system has been developed and programmed using the database programme dBASE IV from the Ashton/Tate Corporation.