Minimally Invasive Mitral Valve Surgery

Cardiac surgery was the last area of surgery to become “minimally invasive,” and this began in the mid-1990s with some regularity at the Cleveland Clinic and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Currently, there are several iterations of minimally invasive techniques for mitral valve surgery. The incisions first used at the Cleveland Clinic and the Brigham were a lower hemisternotomy or a right parasternal incision. More recently, the more frequently used approaches have been a right thoracotomy or a thoracoscopic right thoracotomy (either or both). Finally, the use of robotic mitral valve repair has become popular, albeit still controversial in terms of outcomes.