A new approach to cardiac valve replacement through a small midline incision and inverted L shape partial sternotomy.
OBJECTIVE
Minimally invasive cardiac surgery is becoming more popular as an alternative technique in some cardiac operations. We report our experience with an inverted 'L' ministernotomy in 25 patients and describe the technical details of this new approach.


METHODS
From June 1996 to February 1997 we performed 25 ministernotomy approaches for cardiac surgery, 17 aortic and 7 mitral valve replacements and 1 atrial septal defect closure. A comparison group included all patients (n = 126) operated on for mitral or aortic valve replacement through a median sternotomy since June 1996.


RESULTS
Ventilatory support, Intensive Care Unit stay and hospital stay were 8.3 h (SD = 4 h), 25 h (SD = 8 h) and 5.5 days (SD = 3 days) in the L ministernotomy group and 11.5 h (SD = 5), 53 h (SD = 11) and 9.1 days (SD = 4 days) in the median sternotomy group (P < 0 05). Mortality and morbidity are similar to conventional sternotomy (hospital mortality 4% vs. 5.5%; P not significant).


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that inverted L ministernotomy for cardiac surgery is a safe approach and can offer some advantages over the conventional approach.
Rodríguez
J E
JE
Department of Cardiac Surgery, University Hospital 12 de Octubre, Madrid, Spain.
Cortina
J
J
Pérez de la Sota
E
E
Maroto
L
L
Ginestal
F
F
Rufilanchas
J J
JJ
D001021:Aortic Valve; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D019918:Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007430:Intraoperative Care; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods; D008943:Mitral Valve; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D013249:Sternum / Q000601:surgery*