Minimally Invasive Aortic Valve Surgery through Right Anterior Thoracotomy versus Conventional Approach through Median Sternotomy (Retrospective Study)

Abstract

ecause of the continuous trend towards less invasive procedures, cardiac operations have become increasingly more sophisticated and complex minimally invasive techniques in cardiac operations require higher surgical abilities to accomplish the same quality compared with the traditional procedures with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) or sternotomy. This study was to evaluates the feasibility of minimally invasive aortic valve surgery through a right mini-thoracotomy, and hence to minimize the surgical access to achieve better cosmetic results, less postoperative discomfort and faster recovery while maintaining the same level of safety and favorable results as with conventional surgery, also to compare the procedure and early postoperative outcome of the standard sternotomy approach with the minimally invasive approach. This study was conducted on 80 patients. All the patients completed the study without mortality. The patients were classified into 2 groups:  Group A: Minimally invasive group. This group included 40 patients requiring aortic valve surgery through right mini-thoracotomy (5-8cm).  Group B: Sternotomy group. This group included 40 patients requiring aortic valve surgery through a conventional median sternotomy (18-23cm).