Vascular surgery in Southern Sweden—the first year experience of a vascular registry

A vascular registry was set up in southern Sweden covering all peripheral vascular procedures performed in a population of almost 2 million. During the first year 1569 procedures were registered including 30-day follow-up, making a frequency of 84 per 100 000 inhabitants with a considerable variation between counties, from 42 to 146 procedures per 100 000 inhabitants. The operations were performed by 127 different surgeons, but only nine surgeons performed more than 50 operations each. These surgeons participated in 52.6% of all procedures. The frequency of re-operation differed from 4.0 to 17.9% between hospitals. One month postoperatively 70% of the patients had returned home while 13.2% were still in hospital. Median length of stay was 8 days. Overall mortality was 7.9%. The outcome at 30 days for various procedures was comparable with that of other recent reports from specialised centres.