12 Months To Look Forward To…..., page-20

Found this map on the Congenital Heart Surgeons Society (http://www.chssdc.org/) , indicating the location of the centres in Nth America who submit data regarding surgery for congenital cardiac defects. The bigger map is a bit tricky to read, but I counted not less than 80 centres - that is at least 80 centres that perform paediatric cardiac surgery in the USA.

With the frequently posted (by me ) rate of cases per centre of 300 - 350 cases per year (based on the activity of three centres I could find) and that approx. 13% of cases are for closure of a defect for a patch (reported by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons - the STS) which is about 40-50 cases per centre per year. Multiply that by the 80 centres and you have 3200 - 4000 cases per year, which is in line with the 3300 cases reported by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS).

Add to those 3300 cases the 4000 + cases for re implantation and reconstruction of cardiovascular defects (which from what I am reading, many are documented to need a patch in the procedure) and the number of patches per centre averages out to be about 100 per centre (more if multiple patches are required) - 8000 patches requiring procedures in the US each year, some requiring multiple patches.



Now 15 (the number of centres reportedly using cardiocel)  may not be an exciting number, but, 15 of 80 centres (almost 20%) using cardiocel after only a few short months of product availability and marketing may be.

It is indeed going to be a very exciting 12 months.