Doctors perform a surgery (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - Cardiac surgeons at the HCM City University Medical Centre have successfully performed 100 minimally invasive heart operations.
With technical assistance from German surgeons, the hospital performed the first case in June 2014, doctor Nguyen Hoang Dinh, head of the centre’s heart surgery department, said.
Surgeons perform minimally invasive heart surgery through a small incision (4-5 cm long) on the right side of the chest instead of cutting through the breastbone to gain access to the heart as in traditional open-heart surgery.
This method offers many advantages, including less trauma and pain, lower risk of infection, shorter recovery time and smaller scars, Dinh said.
It takes around three weeks for patients to recover instead of three months in case of open-heart surgery.
Surgeons can perform a number of procedures using this technique, including repair and replacement of the mitral and tricuspid valves, replacement of the aortic valve, atrioventricular canal defect surgery and closure of atrial septal defect.
The hospital is the only one in the southern region that can perform minimal invasive surgery, which requires highly experienced surgical teams and advanced equipment.
Patients with complex congenital heart diseases and those aged above 75 are not appropriate candidates for the technique, Dinh said.-VNA
