During the early years of coronary interventions a rigorous on-site surgical stand-by was mandatory. The increased experience in coronary angioplasty both on total number of procedures and the experience gained by each operator, together with the technical improvements, namely since the introduction of stents has induced an evolution in the stand-by strategy, with new concepts such as "next available operating room" or coronary interventions "without on site" surgical facilities, are gaining widespread acceptance. With the aim of defining the requirements to perform coronary interventions at hospitals without coronary surgery, the following aspects are reviewed: a) complications following coronary angioplasty that require coronary surgery; b) the current status of coronary angioplasty without surgical stand-by in different countries. All this information allows us to advance some recommendations concerning the performance of coronary interventions at hospitals without on-site cardiac surgery. Different issues including hospital characteristics, operator and cardiac catheterization laboratory requirements, as well as lesion characteristics and the type of informed consent, should be taken into account.