Video-assisted minimally invasive mitral valve surgery: Early experience

AbstractBackgroundThe post-operative complications of median sternotomy, especially the post-operative pain and wound complications, has led many surgeons to adopt less invasive techniques to perform open heart surgery. Video-assisted mitral valve surgery via mini thoracotomy is now widely used and is becoming the standard of care in many centers all-over the world.Aim of the studyComparing the early post-operative outcome of video-assisted minimally invasive mitral valve replacement versus the conventional approach via median sternotomy.Patients and methods34 patients undergoing mitral valve replacement (MVR) were randomly selected for this study and were divided in 2 equal groups. Group (A) included 17 patients who had MVR via median sternotomy while group (B) included 17 patients who had MVR via video-assisted anterior minithoracotomy.ResultsThe cross-clamp time was 63.7 ± 2.34 min in group (A) versus 83.4 ± 7.21 min in group (B), which was statistically significant. The operative time was 3.27 ± 1.22 h in group (A) versus 5.62 ± 1.67 h in group (B), which was statistically significant. The duration of mechanical ventilation and the mean units of blood needed were significantly higher in group (A) compared to group (B). There was no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups regarding the postoperative complications including mortality, bleeding or mediastinitis.ConclusionMinimally invasive mitral valve replacement is a safe procedure, with comparable post-operative outcome to conventional median sternotomy