Cardiac surgery was begun in Catalonia during the late 1950s, when a great number of surgical procedures for the treatment of congenital and acquired cardiac diseases were introduced in our hospitals. Excellent results were achieved either with open or closed heart surgery using hypothermia and extra corporeal circulation. Considerable efforts were done to hidden the quality of cardiac surgery to the same level of most pioneer centers in the world.
All those results were presented by catalan specialists on specific reports, discussions and communications to different scientific entities as ”Societat Catalana de Cirurgia” (The Catalan Society of Surgery (founded in 1927)), ”Acadèmia de Ciències Mèdiques de Catalunya i Balears”(The Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia and Balears) and other local corporations.
On March 20th, 1967, was founded in Madrid the "Sociedad Española de Cirugía Cardiovascular" (Spanish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery), with national character and including all the spanish territory. Different meetings and congress were organized by this society from the headquarters in Madrid, but always with a centralist and exclusivist tendency, as was usual during the political system imposed by the government of Franco.
In 1978, one year after the recuperation of the Catalan Autonomy, and just at the same dates of the Congress of the Spanish Society of Cardiovascular Surgery in Santiago de Compostela, a group of catalan surgeons were joined at “El Hostal de los Reyes Católicos” of these town, and they decided to create in Catalonia a new society of cardiac surgery that could be only catalan and independent.
On November 24th,1978, the foundation of the “SOCIETAT CATALANA DE CIRURGIA CARDIACA” (Catalan Society of Cardiac Surgery) was authorized by the President of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia and Balears, Dr.J.Alsina i Bofill.
During the first period, a managing commission was organized with Dr.E.Castells i Cuch, R.Bosch i Suria, C.Lozano i Ruiz, PJ.Miralles i Damiens, and M.Murtra i Ferré. This commission was charged of develop the organization and create the structure for The Society all over the year 1979.
On December 1979, the Catalan Society of Cardiac Surgery was definitively instituted, under the rules of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Catalonia and Balears and with the designation of Dr. E.Castells i Cuch as the first President of The Society.