Impact of Minimally Invasive Mitral Valve Surgery

Minimally invasive cardiac surgery has been introduced for the surgical treatment of isolated valvular heart disease. Interest among cardiac surgeons is growing as the potential benefits to the patient have become more reproducible. Ten years ago, surgeons began to recognize the advantages of performing smaller incisions compared to the traditional median sternotomy.¹ Our group at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center began our anatomic studies relating the cardiac valve position to the surface anatomy of the chest wall in 1998 as we launched our own efforts in this area.² Since that time, experience with large numbers of cases has shown minimally invasive mitral valve surgery to be reproducible, reliable, and much better tolerated by our patients.^3,4 Recently, the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center robotic mitral valve surgery program was successfully launched by Dr. Gerald Lawrie and his team with outstanding early results.