Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery

Definition

Minimally invasive heart surgery refers to surgery performed on the beating heart to provide coronary artery bypass grafting. This technique is often referred to as MIDCAB, minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass; or OPCAB, off-pump CABG.

Purpose

Minimally invasive heart surgery is performed on the diseased heart to reroute blood around clogged arteries and improve the blood and oxygen supply to the heart. This approach provides patients some benefit in that cardiopulmonary bypass (use of a heart-lung machine) may be avoided, and smaller incisions can be used instead of the standard sternotomy (incision through the sternum, or breast bone) approach. Faster recovery time, decreased procedure costs, and reduced morbidity and mortality are the goals of this technique.

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