From classical sternotomy to truly endoscopic mitral valve surgery: a step by step procedure.

Background: There is an increasing tendency towards minimally invasive valve surgery and various surgical techniques have been proposed to realise this goal. The aim of the present study was to describe our current surgical technique and clinical experience with respect to an endoscopic technique that allows the surgeon to perform an operation through a series of small intercostal ports.

Methods: After a learning experience with thoracoscopic left internal mammary to left anterior descending coronary artery bypass surgery, we adopted the endocardiopulmonary bypass technique to perform mitral valve surgery.

Hybrid revascularization strategy: a pilot study on the association of robotically enhanced minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass surgery and fractional-flow-reserve-guided percutaneous coronary intervention.

Background: Robotically enhanced minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (RE-MIDCAB) graft of the left internal mammary artery to the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) and/or the first diagonal branch might be the least traumatic surgical revascularization approach available so far. When combined with fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the non-LAD vessels, this "hybrid" strategy takes advantage of the survival benefit conferred by the internal mammary artery graft to the LAD while providing the patients with a truly minimally invasive, functionally complete revascularization.

Methods And Results: Twenty patients with multivessel disease were selected to undergo combined PCI and RE-MIDCAB because they had a lesion amenable to PCI in the right and/or the left circumflex coronary artery and a lesion in the LAD and/or the first diagonal branch that was considered less than ideal for PCI.

Early stabilization of traumatic aortic transection and mitral valve regurgitation with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

We report a case of life-threatening aortic transection with concomitant mitral papillary muscle rupture and severe lung contusion caused by a failed parachute jump. This blunt thoracic injury was treated by early stabilization with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation followed by successful delayed graft repair of the descending aorta and mitral valve replacement with a mechanical prosthesis.