Risk Stratification in Cardiac Surgery in Pakistan

Cardiovascular disorders continue to be the leading cause of mortality the world over. Surgical coronary artery revascularization remains the gold standard for treatment of ischemic heart disease. Risk stratification tools such as EuroSCORE, EuroSCORE II and Society of Thoracic Surgeons risk calculator are available to predict risk adjusted outcomes and evaluate hospital/surgeon's performance. These were developed and tested on a Caucasian population but not on other populations. With globalization and migration of populations away from their local habitats, it is necessary for cardiac surgeons to be aware of the performance of these risk calculators as applied to such populations. The current work is an attempt to summarize our experience in this regard as applied to the Pakistani population.