RIGHT ANTEROLATERAL THORACOTOOMY APPROACH FOR OPEN HEART SURGERY

Abstract

Open heart surgery is becoming nowdaysa routine procedures in all centers in Egypt. With the growing experience of the surgeons and with the very good success rate in open heart surgical procedures in all centers. Surgeons started to concern with other satisfactory factors rather than just the success of the operation. One of the most important factors that has been concerned with by both the surgeon and the patient at the same time is the postoperative cosmetic appearance of the patient especially in female patients which always pay more attention about their configuration and beauty. Many people found that the standard used median stemotomy for most open heart surgery is cosmetically unsatisfactory and may cause psychic disturbance to patients especially females and so they prefer the right anterolateral thoracotomy approach and encourage it as it leaves a cosmetically much better scar which is well-hidden by breast in females. The aim of this work is to evaluate right anterolateral thoracotomy approach in different types of open heart surgery and to compare it with the standard used median stemotomy approach. We have studied 50 patients undergoing different types of open heart surgery.