Minimally invasive heart surgery is getting popular in the last few years. A minimally invasive approach allows one or more combinations of the following:
» Access to the heart through small incisions splitting only small part of the breast bone or through the spaces in the rib cage without splitting breast bone (Minimal Access Surgery)
» Surgery on heart without stopping the heart,(beating heart surgery)
» Making use of technology like videothoracoscope or robots to do key hole surgery.
Typically heart surgery requires exposure of the heart and its vessels through a skin of 10-12” and median sternotomy (dividing the breastbone-figure1) and this is considered by many, especially patients, as one of the most invasive and traumatic aspects of open-chest surgery. This results in prolonged stay in hospital (5-10 days in general) and requires 8-12 weeks before they can return to their normal activities.