Study design
This was a multicentric retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from 10 cardiac units in Italy (December 2010 to December 2019), based upon a predefined and anonymized extraction sheet. All centres entered cardiac surgery-related data into a common registry that was subject to review by a centralized clinical governance unit who checked data for accuracy and completeness monthly.
. Patients undergoing elective, urgent or emergent isolated valve intervention (MVS or SAVR or TAVR) were included in the analysis. Patients with concomitant coronary artery disease necessitating surgical or percutaneous revascularization were excluded. For the surgical strata, both standard sternotomy and minimally invasive approach were included.
Centre specification and inclusion / exclusion criteria are given inSupplementary Material .