BACKGROUND We hypothesize that composite in-hospital surgical complications are lower in obese patients who undergo minimally invasive valve surgery for aortic and (or) mitral valve disease, when compared with the standard median sternotomy approach. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 2,288 heart operations done at our institution between January 3, 2005 and January 10, 2010, and identified ...

INTRODUCTION Straight sternotomy is the most common access for open heart surgery. Techniques have been proposed for maximizing sternal stability in high-risk patients. This trend implies a growing need for newer surgical techniques. The aim of this experimental study in the sheep model is to evaluate median vs. S shaped sternotomy the feasibility of using a special device to accelerate the ste...

BACKGROUND It is assumed that a right anterolateral thoracotomy for correction of simple congenital cardiac defects (ie, atrial septal defect) achieves more favorable cosmetic results than a standard median sternotomy. METHODS Ninety-five patients, 72 with right anterolateral thoracotomy and 23 with median sternotomy, who had corrective transatrial operations when they were younger than 12 ye...

BACKGROUND Although median sternotomy is standard during cardiac surgery, the procedure is associated with a risk of injury to mediastinal organs. Here, we discuss two cases of tracheal injury following median sternotomy during cardiac surgery. CASE PRESENTATION Ventilation failure occurred in a 78-year-old Japanese man and a 71-year-old Japanese man after median sternotomy, and tracheal inju...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Adequate analgesia after sternotomy reduces postoperative adverse events. There are various methods of treating pain after heart surgery, such as infiltration with a local anesthetic, nerve block, opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, alpha-adrenergic agents, intrathecal and epidural techniques, and multimodal analgesia. CONTENT A review of the epidemiology,...

OBJECTIVES The goal of this study was to evaluate percutaneous interventional and minimally invasive surgical closure of secundum atrial septal defect (ASD) in children. BACKGROUND Concern has surrounded abandoning conventional midline sternotomy in favor of the less invasive approaches pursuing a better cosmetic result and a more rational resource utilization. METHODS A retrospective analy...

OBJECTIVES We sought to compare early and late clinical and echocardiographic outcomes of patients undergoing minimally invasive mitral valve repair by means of the port-access and median sternotomy approaches. METHODS Between 2000 and 2009, 503 patients had mitral valve repair, of whom 143 underwent surgical intervention for isolated posterior leaflet pathology: 61 through port access and 82...