As patients and their physicians become more demanding, the desire to make the procedures "minimally invasive" is growing constantly. In short, "minimally invasive" is a code phrase for life saving procedures which in same time disrupt our quality of life the least. Its goals include reducing incision size, decreasing surgical trauma and pain, and improving cosmesits, patient satisfaction, and ...

Background/Introduction Aortic valve surgery through a right anterior mini-thoracotomy (MT) has demonstrated excellent short-term and long-term-term results, becoming a feasible alternative to the sternotomy approach. Widespread use is limited by unpredictable exposure of the aortic valve. Current use of CT measurements of the aorta to the sternum is not reliably predictive of exposure and freq...

Methods Our group consisted of 35 inoperable patients presenting aortic valve disease unsuitable for transfemoral valve implantation due to extreme peripheral vessel disease. Data were prospectively collected and retrospectively analysed. Using an upper-J mini sternotomy access to the third intercostal space the ascending aorta was exposed. After placing two purse-strings on the ascending aorta...

The paper presents a case report of a patient with a superior vena cava occlusion and post-operational (after the implantation of the aortic valve) atrioventricular block, which required constant stimulation. An epicardial VVI pacemaker was implanted through mini-sternotomy in the lower part of the previous operation field with very satisfactory stimulation parameters. Implantation of a screw-i...

BACKGROUND Intraoperative device closure of perimembranous ventricular septal defect(VSD) through a lower mini-sternotomy is safe, less invasive, and has excellent surgical and cosmetic outcomes. Our study is to evaluate the feasibility of closing VSD under guidance of trans-epicardial echocardiography. METHODS We reviewed the clinical course of 41 patients referred to our institution for min...

BACKGROUND Re-do mitral valve procedures performed through median sternotomy carry substantial mortality and morbidity. To avoid complications of sternal re-entry and to provide adequate mitral valve exposure, antero-lateral thoracotomy has been suggested by some authors. METHODS From October 1997 to January 2007, 677 mitral valve operations have been performed in our centre using port-access...