J.Jpn. Surg. Soc.. 99(12): 821-824, 1998

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Feature topic

MINIMALLY INVASIVE CARDIAC SURGERY FOR AORTIC VALVE DISEASE

Recent surgical advances leading to good operative results have contributed to the trend to useminimally invasive approaches, even in cardiac surgery. Smaller incisions are clearly more cosmetically acceptable to patients. When using a minimally invasive approach, it is most important to maintain surgical quality without jeopardizing patients.
A good operative visual field leads to good surgical results. In the parasternal approach, we use a retractor to harvest an internal thoracic artery in coronary artery bypass surgery. Retracting the sternum upward allows for a good surgical view and permits the use of an arch cannula rather than femoral cannulation. When reoperating for aortic valve repair, the j-sternotomy approach requires less adhesiolysis compared with the traditional full sternotomy. No special technique is necessary to perform aortic valve surgery using the j-sternotomy approach. However, meticulous attention must be paid to avoiding left ventricular air embolisms to prevent postoperative stroke or neurocognitive deficits, especially when utilizing a minimally invasive approach. Transesophageal echo is useful not only for monitoring cardiac function but also for monitoring the persence of air in the left ventricle and atrium.
This paper compareas the degree of invasion of minimally invasive cardiac surgery and the traditional full sternotomy. No differences were found in the occcurrence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome between patients undergoing minimally invasive cardiac surgery and the traditional technique. Therefore it is concluded that minimally invasive surgery for patients with aortic valve disease may become the standard approach in the near future.

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