Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery
For a faster recovery

The long saphenous vein in the leg is harvested with a 1 inch incision at the side of the knee and a 5mm incision at the groin or calf using endovein harvesting techniques. Patient’s wounds will heal faster and they will walk earlier with minimal pain especially if they have poor circulation to the legs. This will also reduce the risk of leg wound infections substantially.

Endoradial harvest techniques involve making a single 1-inch incision at the wrist of the non dominant arm to remove the radial artery as a bypass conduit in suitable patients. This results in a good quality conduit for the coronary bypass with minimal scarring to the arm.

The Left Internal Mammary Artery(LIMA) is the best conduit in CABG and is most commonly used to bypass the Left Anterior Descending Artery(LAD). Minimally Invasive CABG is performed through a 6-8cm incision on the left chest wall between the ribs( anterolateral thoracotomy). There is no division of any bone. Hence, the recovery is dependent only on soft tissue healing. Post operative discomfort is lessened and most patients stay 3-4 days after the procedure and are able to return to work 2-3 weeks after the surgery.

This operation is sometimes performed with percutaneous coronary intervention(PCI) in selected patients to offer complete revascularization as a part of a hybrid CABG procedure. This will provide the patient with the benefit of combining the long term patency LIMA-LAD bypass and the non invasiveness of percutaneous coronary intervention.