@Article{CHD.2020.012197,
AUTHOR = {Alvise Guariento, Ilias P. Doulamis, David Blitzer, Claudia Cattapan, Massimo A. Padalino, Vladimiro L. Vida},
TITLE = {Minimally Invasive Congenital Cardiac Surgery: A Large Volume European  Experience},
JOURNAL = {Structural and Congenital Heart Disease},
VOLUME = {15},
YEAR = {2020},
NUMBER = {3},
PAGES = {127--139},
URL = {http://www.techscience.com/schd/v15n3/39523},
ISSN = {3071-1738},
ABSTRACT = {<b>Background:</b> In an effort to reduce postoperative trauma and achieve 
more cosmetic results, minimally invasive approaches to correct congenital heart 
anomalies have been recently proposed and increasingly adopted. Here we 
describe our experience for the past 23 years. <b>Methods:</b> Patients who underwent 
a surgical procedure between February 1996 and March 2019 with a minimally 
invasive approach for the correction of congenital heart disease in our center 
were included in this study. A statistical analysis was carried out to compare the 
results of the different minimally invasive techniques. A meta-analysis was 
conducted to compare our results in patients undergoing atrial septal defect repair 
with those from other groups. <b>Results:</b> There were 1002 patients included. A 
midline lower mini-sternotomy was performed in 45% of patients (n = 455), a 
right anterior mini-thoracotomy in 36% (n = 356) and a right lateral minithoracotomy in 19% (n = 191). The procedures were atrial septal defect repair (n
= 575, 57%), ventricular septal defect repair (n = 218, 22%), and correction of 
atrioventricular defect (n = 82, 8%) or partial anomalous pulmonary venous 
return (n = 70, 7%). Post-cardiotomy syndrome was the most frequent 
complication (n = 40, 4%). No difference was observed between the approaches 
in terms of complications and peri-operative outcomes, and when these were 
compared with the results of other centers. <b>Conclusions:</b> Patients undergoing 
surgical repair of congenital heart disease through a minimally invasive approach 
have excellent outcomes, regardless of the approach used.},
DOI = {10.32604/CHD.2020.012197}
}