An institution's initial experience with port-access minimally invasive cardiac surgery

Objective: To assess the learning curve associated with Port-Access minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Design: Retrospective. Setting: Single university hospital. Participants: Initial 10 patients undergoing Port-Access minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Intervention: Minimally invasive cardiac surgery. Measurements and Main Results: All 10 patients experienced an uneventful intraoperative and immediate postoperative course. Only one patient experienced postoperative cardiovascular morbidity, which was an episode of new onset atrial fibrillation after mitral valve surgery that was successfully treated with pharmacologic therapy. Extubation times and postoperative discharge times were less than historic controls receiving the same anesthetic technique at the same institution. Conclusion: This institution's initial experience with 10 patients undergoing Port-Access minimally invasive cardiac surgery suggests an acceptable learning curve and decreased extubation and postoperative discharge times, which should translate into reduced health care costs.