Cardioplegia in minimally invasive cardiac surgery: time to go

Abstract

In an interest to accelerate postoperative recovery in cardiac surgery, “minimal invasive cardiac surgery (MICS)” has been introduced to reduce surgical stress for the patients (1). Right thoracotomy and upper hemi-sternotomy are common approaches for MICS, and clinical outcomes of MICS have been reported acceptable compared with conventional median full sternotomy (2,3).