Denmark: coronary and structural heart interventions from 2010 to 2015

Abstract

Interventional cardiology in Denmark has been carried out since the mid 1980s. Interventional cardiology is only performed at a few high-volume centres. Healthcare coverage is universal and is essentially free of charge. Hospitals are mostly publicly owned and financed by fixed budgets and, in part, an activity-based funding system. Approximately 30,000 coronary angiographies (CAG), 10,000 percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) of which approximately 25% are primary PCIs, and 500 transcatheter aortic valve implantations (TAVIs) are carried out each year. The numbers of CAG and PCI have reached a plateau in recent years, whereas structural heart interventions, in particular TAVI, are increasing. Around 90% of all patients treated with PCI have a stent implanted, with more than 95% of these being drug-eluting stents. There is a low but increasing use of bioabsorbable scaffolds and drug-eluting balloons.