Cardiac surgery in South Africa: Have we failed our legacy?

Abstract

Cardiac surgery in South Africa (SA) was thrust onto the world stage in 1967 following Christiaan Barnard’s world-first orthotopic heart transplant in Cape Town. This pioneering achievement defined the country as an unlikely leader in daring surgical innovation, clinical excellence and laboratory research.⁽¹⁾ The decades following the first heart transplant launched the speciality on a pathway of surgical excellence, evident by world-class surgeon-leaders and internationally renowned training units.

That stellar trajectory has unfortunately reversed, and the current SA cardiac surgery landscape is characterised by the lack of experienced academic leadership, virtually non-existent training and surgical programmes, and the lack of outcomes reporting and benchmarking in both private and public sectors.