Endoscopic Mitral Surgeons
The idea of moving from sternotomy to an endoscopic approach for mitral surgery was first put forward in the mid- 1990s by the Stanford group.1 The adoption of this idea has been slow and presently the majority of mitral valve surgery in most countries is still undertaken via sternotomy. Over the past 2 decades there have been many individual surgeons and centers that have been successful in making the transition from sternotomy to an endoscopic approach. At the same time, there has been a larger group that has resisted this change and specific patient- related events have disinclined them further to this approach. [read the full article]
Fig. 1.
Operative room setup.