title: [Repair of cardiac defects by minimal incision without aortic cross-clamp].
abstract: From July 1998 to June 1999, seventy two patients underwent repair of congenital heart defects by a partial sternal split and a limited skin incision(4-8 cm) under cardiopulmonary bypass without aortic cross-clamp at our institution. The average age of these patients was 4 years and 5 months(range: 7 months to 12 years), and the average weight was 15.6 kg(range: 7 kg to 30 kg). Fifty six patients had simple ventricular septal defects, sixteen suffered from atrial septal defects. The average bypass time was (21 +/- 20) min (range: 8-58 min). All patients recovered rapidly from the operation in an uneventful postoperative course. Our experience demonstrates that this technique is feasible and can be performed easily in young children with simple cardiac defects, and has excellent cosmetic results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Hunan Medical University, Changsha 410011.
authors.forename: Z S
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D002315:Cardiopulmonary Bypass / Q000379:methods*; D013504:Cardiovascular Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006344:Heart Septal Defects, Atrial / Q000601:surgery; D006345:Heart Septal Defects, Ventricular / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male