{"id":579,"date":"2008-09-23T10:55:06","date_gmt":"2008-09-23T15:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2008\/09\/23\/mini-sternotomy-for-aortic-valve-replacement\/"},"modified":"2019-02-26T22:10:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T03:10:40","slug":"mini-sternotomy-for-aortic-valve-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2008\/09\/23\/mini-sternotomy-for-aortic-valve-replacement\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Roselli Comments On Mini Sternotomy For Heart Valve Replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I recently received an interesting question from Emily about her upcoming aortic valve replacement.<\/p>\n<p>Emily writes, &#8220;Hi Adam &#8211; After years of monitoring it, my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/aortic-stenosis-valve-heart-narrowing.php\">aortic valve now has severe stenosis<\/a> and I need a valve replacement. Yes. I&#8217;m scared. Yes. I&#8217;m confused. One thing I&#8217;m both scared and confused about is the cracking of my chestplate. Is it true that AVR can be done with smaller incisions to the sternum? If so, is that common?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/mini-sternotomy.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"171\" \/><br \/>\nMini Sternotomy Scar (3-inch Incision)<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>In case you are not familiar with the term, Emily is referring to a <strong>mini-sternotomy<\/strong> which utilizes a significantly smaller incision than a full, median sternotomy (which I had).<\/p>\n<p>According to Brigham &amp; Women&#8217;s Cardiovascular Center in Boston, Massachusetts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Mini-Sternotomy for aortic valve replacement incisions are performed through an upper mini-sternotomy, in which an incision is made from the sternal notch to the third intercostal space.<\/li>\n<li>Mini-Sternotomy for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/mitral-valve-replacement-surgery.php\">mitral valve replacement<\/a>\/repair incisions are performed through a lower mini-sternotomy, in which a 6-8 cm incision is made at the lower end of the sternum upward to the second intercostal space and extending into the interspace on the right.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So you know, my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2007\/10\/31\/broken-sternum-recovery\/\">broken sternum incision<\/a> is about 9 inches long. A <em>mini-sternotomy<\/em> incision is about 3 to 4 inches long. Ultimately, the benefits of a mini-sternotomy are less trauma to the chestplate and faster recovery.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Eric-Roselli-Cleveland-Ohio.php\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/Images\/eric-roselli-cleveland.jpg\" width=\"144\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nDr. Eric Roselli, Heart Surgeon, Cleveland Clinic<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As for Emily&#8217;s second question, &#8220;Are mini-sternotomy procedures common?&#8221;, I contacted Doctor Eric Roselli, a cardiothoracic surgeon from the Cleveland Clinic to learn more. According to Dr. Roselli, &#8220;Almost all isolated first time aortic valves get a mini-sternotomy in my practice and I believe that&#8217;s true for my colleagues as well.&#8221; (To learn more about Dr. Roselli, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Eric-Roselli-Cleveland-Ohio.php\">click here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>I hope this helps Emily (and perhaps you) learn a little more about the difference between mini- and full-sternotomy.<\/p>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-surgeons-clinics"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}