Atrial septal defect closure via a partial lower ministernotomy.

Patients with secundum atrial septal defects preferentially undergo device closure;  however, this procedure is not always feasible. Instead, patients can safely undergo surgical closure. At a time when minimally invasive surgery can now be utilized with improved cosmetic results and the same excellent outcomes as a conventional sternotomy for an atrial septal defect closure, we propose the partial lower ministernotomy as the new standard for surgical atrial septal defect closure. We present a surgical case demonstrating this technique.