Maintenance of quality in a small cardiac surgical unit.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcome of cardiac surgery at Allamanda Hospital which is a small private hospital carrying out less than 100 operations per year.

Methods: Data on patients undergoing cardiac surgery since 2002 were prospectively entered into a database. An analysis of this data is presented and compared with national and international benchmarks for results from larger national and international cardiac surgery units.