German Heart Surgery Report 2025: The Annual Updated Registry of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery

Abstract Based on a voluntary registry, founded by the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG) in 1980, well-defined but limited datasets of all cardiac and vascular surgery procedures performed in 78 German heart surgery departments are reported annually. For the year 2025, nearly all departments submitted a total of 181,988 procedures to the registry. Of these operations, 107,546 are defined as heart surgery procedures in a classical sense. The unadjusted in-hospital survival rate for the 29,267 isolated coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures (relationship on-/off-pump 2.4:1) was 97.7%, 97.4% for the 48,167 isolated heart valve procedures (26,896 transcatheter interventions included) and 99.3% for 19,528 pacemaker/implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) procedures, respectively. Concerning short- and long-term mechanical circulatory support, a total of 3,109 ECLS/ECMO implantations and 867 ventricular assist device implantations (L-/R-/BVAD, TAH) were reported. In 2025, 358 isolated heart transplantations, 310 isolated lung transplantations, and 6 combined heart–lung transplantations were performed. This annually updated registry of the DGTHG represents non-risk adjusted voluntary public reporting, encompassing actual data for nearly all heart surgical procedures in Germany, indicating trends in heart medicine, and representing a basis for quality management (e.g., benchmark) for all participating institutions.