As technology and medical devices evolve, doctors are constantly trying to find new ways to make surgical procedures less invasive. Particularly when it comes to heart surgery – one of the biggest invasive procedures performed in medical world. In recent years, the tremendous development in minimally invasive heart surgery has given many patients the comfort and advantages of undergoing cardiac surgery with very smaller scar, fewer complications and shorter stay in the hospital.

Traditional open heart surgery requires exposure of the heart through dividing the breastbone (called median sternotomy) and use of the heart lung machine to support the stopped heart (called cardiopulmonary bypass). Thus, the incision is very large and patients would carry a 15 to 20cm long scar for the rest of their lives.

“But with minimally invasive heart surgery, it can be performed through small incision between the ribs instead of cutting through the bone. Thus, there is less body trauma and hence less pain and reduced loss of blood, the patient's stay at hospital is reduced, recovery time is less compared to the time taken after the traditional surgery,” explained Dr Lim Yeong Phang, a cardiothoracic surgeon of Gleneagles Hospital, Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, Singapore. He also added that, infection risk is less in this method, the incision heals faster, and it is an advantage for patients who are considered to be on the high risk side to undergo the traditional method of surgery due to different factors.

With minimally invasive heart surgery, surgeons can perform coronary bypass operation to removed blocked artery and graft another artery harvested from other parts of patient's body. And it is also useful in fixing faulty valves of the heart or some structural problems of heart.

Dr Lim is an expert in minimally invasive procedure and has performed procedures like Minimally Invasive Direct Coronary Artery Bypass without cutting through any bone.  He shared his insights with Star Health that minimally invasive procedures to fix heart problems is getting popular due to its advantages and hoped that it would be useful in treating some other heart problems in near future .

Although it has several advantages, minimally invasive heart surgery is not an option for everyone especially if someone has had prior heart surgery. Surgeon needs to review your medical history and the results of diagnostic tests to determine if you are a candidate for minimally invasive heart surgery.

Mount Elizabeth Hospitals in Singapore are one of the pioneer hospitals in Asia to treat patients using minimally invasive heart surgeries. Patients can get more information about the procedure through Parkway Patient Assistance Centre (PPAC) located in Dhaka and Chittagong, E-mail: [email protected].