Switzerland is pioneering in interventional cardiology since its inception. The Swiss Working Group for Interventional Cardiology aims to federate the community of the interventional cardiologists in Switzerland, to ensure appropriate training of trainees in interventional cardiology and to allow efficient networking with the rest of the world.

The most frequent cardiac interventions are:

Coronary angioplasty (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, PTCA or plain balloon angioplasty, POBA):
angioplasty is an intervention with balloon inflation within a coronary artery for the treatment of coronary artery disease.

Stent implantation: a stent is a small (mostly metallic) ‘tube’ inserted into the artery in order to prevent vessel-collapse.

Valvuloplasty is the dilation of narrowed cardiac valves using dedicated balloon. Per analogy to coronary stent, it is now possible to implant cardiac valves (transcatheter aortic valve implantation, TAVI) premonted on stent in order to replace some narrowed cardiac valves, such as the aortic or pulmonary valves. In case of valvular leakage (regurgitation), some new techniques aim to improve valvular function by repairing the valve percutaneously.

Congenital heart defect correction, such as closure of patent foramen ovale, atrial septal and ventricular septal defects (holes), closure of a patent ductus arteriosus, and angioplasty of the great vessels.