Our findings support the utility of surgery task load index (SURG-TLX) in real cardiac cases as a measure of cognitive load over time, and on an individual and team-wide basis.
Within that portion of the spectrum of isolated aortic valve surgery where propensity matching was possible, minimally invasive aortic valve surgery had not only cosmetic advantages, but blood product use, respiratory, pain, and resource utilization advantages over full sternotomy, and no apparent detriments.