Endoscopic cardiac surgery: the future in heart surgery

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Endoscopic cardiac surgery is the newest development in the field of cardiac surgery.

It combines the excellent surgical result with the incomparable aesthetics, without the disadvantages of median sternotomy, i.e. the classic opening of the sternum.

The operation
The operation is performed with special tools and a 3D camera, which are inserted through small holes between the ribs in the patient’s right chest.

The surgeon performs the operation with detailed precision, having a magnified image of the area in which he intervenes, achieving the repair of the heart valves or their replacement.

Advantages of minimally invasive heart surgery
Many studies have now proven that the results of endoscopic cardiac surgery are as good as those achieved by opening the sternum, but without the disadvantages of median sternotomy.

Specifically:
-The length of stay in the hospital is reduced
-Blood transfusions are reduced
-The patient is at lower risk of infection
-Post-operatively, patients do not feel pain.
-The aesthetic result is unparalleled, since the incisions are very small, while in women they are done under the breast and are not visible at all.

Applications of minimally invasive cardiac surgery
Endoscopic cardiac surgery in skilled hands allows us to perform a bypass, repair or replace the mitral valve, replace the aortic valve, treat the atrial septal defect or even remove benign heart tumors such as myxoma or even remove the thymus gland .

The results of these operations are excellent and at the moment Dr. A. Panos and his team, of the 3rd Heart Surgery Clinic of HYGEIA, are among the few groups internationally with experience of several hundred heart operations with this technique.

Still other diseases cannot be treated with endoscopic cardiac surgery and need a classic surgery, while others are treated with hybrid methods, that is, the application of surgical and cardiac interventional techniques.

This is where the concept of the Heart Team comes in, a group of scientists dealing with heart diseases, which will discuss the patient’s specific problem in order to be able to individually recommend the best and most appropriate treatment.

Recently, an endoscopic repair operation of a rare congenital Ebstein’s anomaly was performed at HYGEIA, in an adult patient, with complete success, pioneering for Greek data.

The medical staff of the 3rd Cardiac Surgery Clinic of HYGEIA, led by Dr. Aristoteli Panos, the help of Dr. Kyriakou Bellou, Asst. Director of the 3rd Cardiac Surgery Clinic of HYGEIA, the Anesthesiologist, Associate of the Clinic, Mr. Silvios Vlad, as well as the assistance of the director of the intensive care unit, Intensivist, Ilias Andrianakis, successfully completed the operation completely endoscopically, without the median sternotomy and the patient was discharged on the 6th postoperative day in excellent condition.

Ebstein’s anomaly, is a congenital heart pathology which in its incomplete form combines severe tricuspid valve insufficiency, due to displacement of the free rim of the septal and posterior tricuspid leaflets in the direction of the apex of the heart, so that the right atrium appears larger and the right ventricle smaller and the presence of interatrial communication, resulting in heart failure if neglected.

During the operation, the surgical team was able to completely and endoscopically repair the tricuspid valve by shifting the cusps to the correct level, by blocking the interspace between the right atrium and right ventricle, and by converging the interatrial communication.

In 2008, Dr. A. Panos and the medical team of the 3rd Cardiac Surgery Clinic of HYGEIA performed the first mitral valve repair operation in our country with the Da Vinci robotic system, as well as the first endoscopic video-assisted cardiac surgeries in our country , in HEALTH. Since then, hundreds of such operations have followed with great success and appeal to patients. At the same time, the 3rd Cardiac Surgery Clinic of HYGEIA, since 2016, undertakes the training and familiarization of European Cardiac Surgeons and their teams, in the pioneering techniques of endoscopic cardiac surgery. The state-of-the-art equipment of HYGEIA, as well as the excellent training of the hospital’s nursing staff, are key factors in the success of this educational program.

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