Review of Minimally Invasive Aortic Valve Surgery

Minimally invasive aortic valve surgery (MIAVS) has been developed for the last 20 years. The improvements in techniques have permitted cardiac surgeons to perform aortic valve replacement safely and efficiently with minimally incisions. Patients have become older and have multiple comorbidities and this is expected to grow in number. Less-invasive procedures are known to reduce the number of complications, together with smaller incisions, less pain, less blood loss and reduced length of hospital stay. Selective preoperative planning with computed tomography is key to the pre-investigation stage. Hybrid and staged procedures with interventional cardiologists are part of the armamentarium and may be appealing for the present and near future. Despite the nature of demanding procedures and longer learning curve with increased cardiopulmonary bypass times, the outcomes are comparable with same quality as conventional open surgery. Patient recovery is the ultimate purpose of these approaches.