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Ann Thorac Surg 2001;71:810
© 2001 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

Invited commentary

^a Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 4 Silverstein, 3400 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA

e-mail: michael.acker@uphs.upenn.edu

Port access valvular surgery usually substitutes some sort of small right anterior thoracotomy for standard sternotomy. It’s purported by its opponents that avoidance of a sternotomy leads to improved cosmesis, less pain, decreased length of stay, decreased hospital cost, and faster recovery. Such claims, as is generally true for the field of minimally invasive cardiac surgery, are primarily based on relatively small series that are uncontrolled and mainly observational. There is little in published reports that actually compares the two approaches in any sort of objective, randomized fashion.

This is an impressive series by one of the most experienced groups . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Impact of minimally invasive valvular heart surgery: a case-control study

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Ann. Thorac. Surg. 2001 71: 807-810. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]