German Registry for Acute Aortic Dissection type A (GERAADA) - New software design, parameters and their definitions

Background: The working group for aortic surgery and interventional vascular surgery of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (GSTCVS) initiated the web-based German Registry for Acute Aortic Dissection type A (GERAADA). It is the project's aim to collect standardized data from a large pool of patients with acute aortic dissections type A (AADA) to gain a deeper insight and knowledge to improve surgical therapies and perioperative management for these patients in the future. Methods: In addition to new medical insights, the working group has gained more experience over the last 4 years in how to collect valid and high-quality data. This experience led us to revise the database completely. In this article we describe the new version of GERAADA, providing an overview as well as defining the parameters, and explaining the new features. This overview fulfills a request by the users of GERAADA in the participating centers. Results: Since its inception, 50 cardiac centers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have provided over 2000 records and the first statistical results have been published. Conclusion: GERAADA's new design allows it to stay abreast of changes in medicine and to focus on the essentials necessary for statistically relevant results, while keeping the work load low for the data providers at each cardiac center.