Minimal invasive surgery in congenital heart defects: keeping sight of our priority

Addressing the Global Burden of Trauma in Major Surgery

Despite a technically perfect procedure, surgical stress can determine the success or failure of an operation. Surgical trauma is often referred to as the "neglected step-child" of global health in terms of patient numbers, mortality, morbidity, and costs. A staggering 234 million major surgeries are performed every year, and depending upon country and institution, up to 4% of patients will die before leaving hospital, up to 15% will have serious post-operative morbidity, and 5-15% will be readmitted within 30 days. These percentages equate to around 1000 deaths and 4000 major complications every hour, and it has been estimated that 50% may be preventable. New frontline drugs are urgently required to make major surgery safer for the patient and more predictable for the surgeon. We review the basic physiology of the stress response from neuroendocrine to genomic systems, and discuss the paucity of clinical data supporting the use of statins, beta-adrenergic blockers and calcium-channel blockers. Since cardiac-related complications are the most common, particularly in the elderly, a key strategy would be to improve ventricular-arterial coupling to safeguard the endothelium and maintain tissue oxygenation. Reduced O2 supply is associated with glycocalyx shedding, decreased endothelial barrier function, fluid leakage, inflammation, and coagulopathy. A healthy endothelium may prevent these "secondary hit" complications, including possibly immunosuppression. Thus, the four pillars of whole body resynchronization during surgical trauma, and targets for new therapies, are: (1) the CNS, (2) the heart, (3) arterial supply and venous return functions, and (4) the endothelium. This is termed the Central-Cardio-Vascular-Endothelium (CCVE) coupling hypothesis. Since similar sterile injury cascades exist in critical illness, accidental trauma, hemorrhage, cardiac arrest, infection and burns, new drugs that improve CCVE coupling may find wide utility in civilian and military medicine.

Barlow's mitral valve disease: results of conventional and minimally invasive repair approaches

Barlow's valve is a clinically important form of degenerative mitral valve (MV) disease that is characterized by unique clinical, echocardiographic and pathological features. Successful and durable repair of Barlow's MV represents a clinical challenge for most cardiac surgeons. An armamentarium of different MV repair techniques may be required, resectional, neochordal or plicational techniques. Although conventional sternotomy remains the mainstay approach for MV surgery in the majority of cardiac surgery centers, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is becoming increasingly accepted amongst patients, referring physicians and practicing cardiac surgeons. As surgical approaches, instrumentation and operative experience develop, select centers are now performing MIS MV surgery for nearly all MV patients. Although successful Barlow's MV repair is more complex than that for most degenerative pathologies, several centers have published relatively large series of MIS MV repair for Barlow's disease. In this review article, we highlight and compare the early and long-term results of conventional and minimally invasive approaches to Barlow's and bileaflet mitral prolapse disease. Recent studies from various large volume centers around the world have demonstrated equivalent safety and efficacy outcomes of the MIS approach compared to conventional sternotomy surgery. In addition, MIS MV surgery may allow patients to benefit from a cosmetically appealing incision, a faster recovery and a quicker return to normal activities. However, a definite learning curve has been demonstrated for MIS MV surgery. If a patient with Barlow's disease or other complex MV pathology desires to undergo MIS MV surgery, referral to a center and/or surgeon with extensive experience in MIS MV surgery is recommended.