Outcomes For Adult Cardiac Patients Improve

Outcomes for adult cardiac patients in the UK have improved significantly since publication of information on death rates, research suggests.

The study also found more elderly and high-risk patients were now being treated, despite fears surgeons would not want to take them on.

It is based on analysis of more than 400,000 operations by the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery ,BBC News reports.

However, John Black, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said: "All branches of surgery are following the trail on reporting outcomes that cardiac surgeons have blazed and this should spur those efforts on.

"All of medicine should take note of the findings that full audit has not resulted in risk-averse behaviour." ,Telegraph.co.uk reports.

Meanwhile, by 2025, the researchers say, there could be a 46 percent increase in the demand for cardiothoracic surgeons, but a drop of at least 21 percent in the number of available surgeons.

The looming shortage of surgeons is a matter of supply and demand, said lead researcher Dr. Atul Grover, director of government relations for the association, U.S. News & World Report reports.