Data collection
The cardiac surgical database is locally managed and centrally overseen at a national level, following national guidelines for minimal perioperative data collection, including pre-operative co-variates, detailed operative characteristics and short-term post-operative outcomes.
In our centre, patients undergo routine trans-oesophageal echocardiography in theatre peri-operatively followed by computerised tomography scans before discharge, and then every year on their follow up. Early and mid-term outcomes were assessed based on echocardiographic findings and grading of aortic regurgitation.