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Minimally invasive surgery has taken the fear out of heart procedures
The technique is now the gold standard for most heart surgeries
The now common approach of operating on patients in a minimally invasive way has been often hailed as a groundbreaking advancement in surgery, offering people life-saving and effective treatments with reduced side effects and faster recovery times. Perhaps nowhere are these benefits more visible than in heart surgery, a procedure that in the past often required a long incision of 15 to 20 centimetres along with the cutting of the breastbone to access the heart.
Minimally invasive surgery, also known as keyhole surgery, has made this painful and traumatic experience a thing of the past in the vast majority of heart surgery cases.
“ With minimally invasive methods surgeons can avoid cutting the breastbone and can operate on the heart by making a small opening of three to four centimetres on the left or right sides of the chest and accessing the heart through the ribs,” explained Professor Shahrul Amry Hashim, a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Damansara Specialist Hospital 2 in Malaysia.“ This has led to significant benefits for patients.”
The first positive is of a psychological nature. Having the chest open during surgery is one of the issues that scares patients the most, said Professor Shahrul, with some experiencing anxiety or being traumatised due to the invasive procedure. Hence, surgeons can now allay most patients’ fears by simply offering to fix their heart problems through minimally invasive surgery. Alleviating fears can also facilitate recovery because patients who are confident in their treatment outcomes usually recover faster than those who fear treatment.
In addition, patients can benefit from decreased bleeding and infection risks as well as shorter and less intense pain. Indeed, smaller cuts lead to a reduction in blood loss and make it less likely that the wound will get infected— a particularly important benefit for patients with diabetes, whose ability to heal wounds may be reduced by the chronic disease.
Finally, a minimally invasive approach speeds up the recovery process. While the cutting of the breastbone requires two to three months to heal, the wounds to the skin and muscles that are typical of keyhole surgery usually heal in two to three weeks because the bones aren’ t affected.
“ Patients who undergo minimally invasive surgery can usually start walking the day after the operation and do physiotherapy while they are still hospitalised,” stressed Professor Shahrul.“ They can return back to their normality far earlier than patients who underwent traditional heart surgery, going back to work within two to three weeks after the operation.”
This speedy recovery was essential for a 72-yearold man who suffered from a heart attack and was successfully treated by Professor Shahrul— the patient wanted to pull through quickly in order to go on a pilgrimage and minimally invasive surgery made that possible.“ He underwent a minimally invasive heart bypass to fix multiple blockages in his blood vessels and three weeks after the procedure he flew
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