title: Prospective comparison of minimally invasive and standard techniques for aortic valve replacement: initial experience in the first hundred patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aortic valve replacement (AVR) can be performed through a partial upper sternotomy. In this study we compared the early postoperative outcome in two groups of patients who underwent AVR with a minimally invasive procedure (n = 30) or with a conventional approach (n = 70). The predicted operative mortality (Parsonnet Index) was slightly higher in the conventional group (17.69 +/- 0.85 versus 12.7 +/- 1.02), reflecting the greater mean age of the patients (70.96 +/- 1.17 versus 64.20 +/- 2.57).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The distribution of the different etiologies of aortic valve pathology did not differ between groups. There was no postoperative death in the mini-invasive group. Cardiopulmonary bypass time was longer in the mini-invasive group, but the other operative parameters did not differ between groups. Postoperative morbidity regarding the need for blood transfusion, the duration of assisted ventilation, length of stay in the intensive care unit, and abnormalities of cardiac rhythm and conduction was slightly but not significantly reduced in the mini-invasive group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data demonstrate that a partial upper sternotomy is a safe and effective technique for AVR. Postoperative morbidity is not significantly reduced in patients undergoing AVR by this approach. Further studies in a larger patient population are necessary to assess whether postoperative morbidity is significantly reduced.
authors.affiliation: Département Médico-Chirurgical de Cardiologie, René Beauchant, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Poitiers, Rue de la Milétrie, Poitiers, France.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Corbi
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rahmati
authors.forename: Erwan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Donal
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lanquetot
authors.forename: Chistophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jayle
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Menu
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Allal
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001022:Aortic Valve Insufficiency / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D019918:Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000401:mortality; D011336:Probability; D011446:Prospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013249:Sternum / Q000601:surgery; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome