Since 1990 the Institute of Cardiac Survey has compiled data on open heart surgery. In 1993 247,943 operations were performed. Subsets have been performed as follows: 61.9%: 153,670 of the operations were on the coronaries (CABG), 22.8%: 56,574 for valve replacement, 9.7%: 24,174 for congenital lesions, 2.5%: 6,308 other operations, 1.9%: 4,689 aortic aneurysms, 1.0%: 2,528 for heart replacement. 1993 was the first year that the data for direct surgery on the aorta (ascending, descending) in dissection or aneurysm were collected effectively. This subset was 1.9%, e.g. 4,689, of the total number. The increasing rate of open heart surgery in Europe was 8.3%, whereby the highest increasing rate could be observed in CABG.