[Relation between cardiology and cardiosurgery in a center without cardiosurgery: an organizational proposal in the coronary syndromes].

A modern cardiology department has very frequent relations with a heart surgery center for the management of stable and unstable patients with coronary artery disease. Therefore, these relations need to be formally defined. This impelling necessity stems from the clinical evidence that a high number of unstable patients need a timely revascularization as well as from the economical pressure to correctly allocate the limited surgical resources available. Thus three main contexts should be clearly defined: 1) surgical support during coronary angioplasty (PTCA), when this activity is performed on-site; 2) timely revascularization of unstable patients admitted to the coronary care unit or the ward; 3) surgical prioritization of stable subjects undergoing diagnostic catheterization. The increased experience in PTCA as well as several technical improvements, namely stents, has dramatically reduced the need for emergency surgical revascularization and has induced an evolution in the stand-by strategy with new concepts such as "surgical back-up" or "next available operating room". Therefore, the role of heart surgery has switched from the emergency treatment of the frequent complications of PTCA to the timely revascularization of subjects not suitable for percutaneous interventions. Thus, PTCA "without on-site" surgical facilities is gaining widespread acceptance. With the aim of defining the requirements to perform PTCA at hospitals without coronary surgery facilities, several aspects are reviewed. Furthermore, the concepts of timely surgical revascularization in unstable patients as well as the management of surgical prioritization for stable subjects submitted to diagnostic catheterization are discussed in detail. Therefore, there is still a tight relation between cardiology and heart surgery in several clinical contexts. However, the main issues of these relations as well as outcomes do not differ significantly whether heart surgery is on-site or off-site.