| Live
Heart Surgery on the Internet
Surgeons
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston recently replaced
a patient’s aortic valve during a live Internet broadcast.
The web cast, which is the third in a series, is intended to
educate medical students, cardiac surgeons, and the general
public about the latest minimally invasive techniques now available
for such a procedure.
Minimally
invasive aortic valve replacement—or limited superior median
sternotomy—is not as widely performed as the more traditional
form of surgery, which requires the patient to undergo a complete
sternotomy in order to access the heart. However, the less-invasive
form of the surgery is gaining popularity among cardiothoracic
surgeons as technology improves and the benefits to the patients
increase.
“While
the success rate on this type of surgery is very high, the
recovery process, traditionally, can be a painful experience
for the patient,” said Lawrence Cohn, MD, Chief, Division of
Cardiac Surgery at BWH. “By performing the less-invasive version
of this surgery, the patient may enjoy a faster and less uncomfortable
recovery.”#
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