We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Patients are the centre and the core of our system. We are professionals committed to quality care and our organizational structure breaks down the traditional boundaries between departments and professional groups, with an exclusive model of knowledge areas.
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The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
The Cardiac Surgery Department provides care for patients with heart diseases who need an operation. This branch of medicine is highly specialised and requires expert staff. Our department is a pioneer in the Catalan public health system that has grown significantly since it was officially created on 24 January 1972. The current coverage area of our department is approximately one million inhabitants and includes the counties of Camp de Tarragona, Lleida and North Barcelonès. This is an extensive geographical area, though its population density is lower than others.
Our activity at the Cardiac Surgery Department has been linked to the history of medicine and, more specifically, to the history of cardiac surgery in Catalonia. Thus, the Department's development has been possible thanks to the advances made in cardiac surgery and cardiology in general. Also relevant here is its expansion from an initial national health system that developed into the current regional health system regulated by the Catalan Health Service through the Catalan Health Institute.
The history of our Department dates back to the 1960s, when Dr. Paravisini performed the first surgeries to repair the heart's mitral valve, named "mitral comissurotomies". The following years saw the beginnings of cardiac surgery using extracorporeal circulation, a technique employed to replace the heart’s function as a pump thus enabling the heart to be stopped and operated on. Surgical operations became standard by the end of the 1970s. It was not until the 1980s, however, with the arrival of Dr. Murtra, that there could be said to be a protocol-based programme of operations that produced pioneering results at the time. The number of patients treated has steadily increased: from 400 cases a year using extracorporeal circulation in the 1980s, to 600 at present. Dr Rafael Rodríguez Lecoq, the current Head of Department, has updated the techniques, promoting an expert team specialised in the most innovative techniques, as well as the interdisciplinary treatment of pathologies in conjunction with cardiology, anaesthesia, intensive care, radiology and vascular surgery services, amongst others.
We have the most cutting-edge techniques and equipment for minimally invasive surgery, via a minimal incision, such as aortic and mitral valvular repair, coronary surgery without stopping the heart, surgery for adult congenital heart disease and integral treatment of Aorta. In 2021, we performed the following surgeries:
Resident cardiovascular surgeons and other specialist doctors working as locums for our Department, jointly take part in pre-operative studies with the Department team, both in surgical indications and in surgical procedures, with a varying degree of involvement, depending on their level of training. These doctors join the Post-Operative Cardiac Surgery Unit (UPCC) immediately after cardiac surgery, provide postoperative care on the ward, and take part in monitoring patients through outpatient consultations.
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