Minimally invasive surgery for valvular heart disease is possible. It has become the treatment of choice for mitral valve prolapse and aortic valve stenosis. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. Minimally invasive surgery for valvular heart disease was pioneered by cardiac surgeon Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn, MD. He developed a minimally invasive aortic valve replacement techniques. The recovery time in patients with minimally invasive aortic valve surgery was reduced significantly. Pioneering cardiac surgeon in minimally invasive heart valve surgery explains the advantages of minimally invasive method. Therapy for valvular heart disease surgical treatment. Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn, MD. Video interview with leading expert in cardiac surgery. Second opinion confirms that mitral valve prolapse diagnosis is correct and complete. Second opinion helps to choose the best treatment for valvular heart disease. Get second opinion on valvular heart disease and be confident that your treatment and surgical operation is the best. It is important to prove that minimally invasive methods in surgery benefit the patients first. Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn, MD. Patients recover faster and go back to their daily life faster. Video Interview in Boston. Mitral valve repair minimally invasive. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. You are one of the pioneers of minimally invasive cardiac surgery, especially surgery of heart valves. Yes, right. What were the changes in standards of heart valve surgery during the recent decade? Dr. Anton Titov, MD. What is the current surgical method to treatment of diseases of aortic and mitral heart valves? 1234 Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn, MD. We started doing minimally invasive heart surgery for this reason. Use of minimally invasive techniques was increasing in all areas of surgery. Minimally invasive methods exist in general surgery, in orthopedic surgery and in all subspecialties of surgery. We started doing first minimally invasive cardiac surgeries in 1996. It is a small incision heart operations. Our first patients had only isolated heart valve problems. These patients did not have other heart problems. They did not have coronary artery disease. Because this would prevent minimally invasive method of surgery. We started to do minimally invasive heart valve surgery by doing the incision half as long as a standard incision. Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn, MD. We started by treating aortic heart valve disease. We found that we could see the aorta. We could do standard aortic heart valve replacement. But incision we did was just one third (1/3) of size of the standard incision. The reason why we started doing minimally invasive heart valve surgery is this. It is because we thought it would be better clinical outcomes for the patient. After we did operations on our first 100 patients, we wrote a scientific article. We presented our work at the meeting of American Surgical Association. The nurse, who still works here, phoned 100 patients who had minimally invasive heart valve surgery through a small incision. She also phoned 100 patients who had surgery via standard length incision. The nurse did not know which patient had which type of surgery. We found that patients who underwent minimally invasive heart surgery, recovered much faster. Patients returned to work faster. They generally felt a lot better faster. So the main purpose of our minimally invasive surgical method is to help patients do better and recover faster. We compared 100 minimally invasive heart valve surgeries and 100 results of standard classical method. Then we decided that minimally invasive technique is better. Dr. Lawrence H. Cohn, MD. We continued to use it. Because the results and mortality of patients were the same between two heart surgery methods. New heart valves worked well. I tell young surgeons that. It is fine if they want to try a new technique of surgical operation. But after some time passes, surgeons have to ensure that new technique is as good or better for the patient than the old technique of operation. Then they can replace old surgery method with new minimally invasive surgery method. They have to observe a large number of operations with new technique. Dr. Anton Titov, MD. This is fundamentally important. Minimally invasive surgery for valvular heart disease. Mitral valve prolapse, aortic stenosis - minimally invasive surgery allows faster and better recovery. Minimally invasive surgery for valvular heart disease has become the treatment of choice for mitral valve prolapse and aortic valve stenosis. Pioneering cardiac surgeon in minimally invasive heart valve surgery explains the advantages. Minimally invasive method for valvular heart disease surgical treatment.