What are the contra-indications for Minimal invasive heart surgery?

The inclusion of modern technology and scientific advancement in the field of surgery has improved the success rates of various complex operations particularly, this positive impact has been measured in the field of cardiology where earlier the only option available was that of traditional surgery. But with time, the cardiologist and expert of the field work together to find methodology and practices which could prove to be productive alternatives when open heart surgery was not eligible to be performed on the patient. In these research, a great breakthrough came in when minimal invasive heart surgery was worked upon and developed. The name of minimally invasive surgery itself explains the methodology through which it is performed, cardiologists make small incisions for inserting highly advanced medical instruments inside the patient's body. In this surgical process, the patient experiences less scarring and in addition to that, the period of recovery is quickened. On top of that, the patient can take leave from the hospital in a short duration of time which was not the case when the patient had to undergo open heart surgery.

While performing minimally invasive cardiac surgery for a heart problem, the cardiologist and concerned expert have to ensure that proper care and high-level supervision is provided to the patient. In this technically advanced surgical procedure, the making of small incisions is the key to expose the sections of the damaged arteries which became the underlying cause of the heart problems that the patient is suffering. In open heart surgery, one large incision is made on the patient's chest but in this surgery, two small incisions (technically termed as thoracotomies) are marked on the chest of the patient's to reach the coronary arteries. The benefits of minimally invasive surgery start from this very point. Firstly, the making of small incisions guarantees that the patient has to experience less scarring unlike in the case of a sternotomy where the size of the incision is very large and it stays for a long time. As a result of small incision making, the healing is quick and in a short period of time, the skin around the incision starts to show recovery to its normal state. The making of small incisions has other advantages to offer as well. While in open heart surgery, the entire heart was exposed during the operation; here in case of minimum invasive surgery, the small incisions made on the chest do not expose the entire heart and only the damaged arteries are exposed in which grafting, replacement or repair has to be done This step diminishes the risk of infection which else could have proved to be a complication in the further course of treatment of heart disease.

But there is a contradiction in minimum invasive surgery for treating heart problems and it is derived from the very methodology which is used to perform this surgical procedure. Majorly, all the benefits offered by this form of heart surgery is due to the process of incision making which takes special care of the fact that the size of incisions should be small and their number should not exceed two. In most of the cases, this practice of incision making provides less scarring, quicker healing, and early discharge from hospital and various other related merits which were not provided by the earlier forms of heart surgery. But in this case of surgery, the methodology of performing operation limits the conditions which can be treated by other forms of heart treatments. Even though this surgical procedure is successful in treating the problems with are associated with heart valves such as mitral valve stenosis and aortic valve problems but when the problem is severe in terms of the number of coronary arteries which have been damaged, in such cases, performing heart surgery through minimally invasive procedures is not recommended by the well-experienced cardiologists.