Heart failure: over 5 million Europeans affected:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
More than 5 million people in Europe are affected by heart failure and 600,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Approximately 1% of the over 65s are affected, according to statistics from Eucomed, the European medical device industry association, and once heart failure is diagnosed prognosis is poor: overall mortality is 10% at one year and 50% at five years. It is estimated that 1.3 million patients suffer from heart failure in Germany alone and that 3 million citizens are affected in the five major European countries of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, with 330,000 new cases of heart failure diagnosed each year. Heart valve replacement procedures now total some 225,000 worldwide each year, with mortality rates associated with this surgery varying between 2.5% and 3.5% for a first operation.