What is Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery?
For Edwards Lifesciences, our history has always been to provide the optimal cardiac surgery devices leading to the best patient outcomes. Our mission for the future remains unchanged and we have to lead the effort to ensure our products evolve to meet the expectations of the patients for successful minimally invasive surgery as well as the needs of the surgeon in terms of clinical efficacy and ease of use.
I would tend to concur with Dr. Chitwood that “minimally invasive” is more a philosophy rather than a specific procedure, but there are some tangible examples from which we can draw. Knee surgery is probably the best illustration in that almost all of these procedures are now performed arthroscopically. The patients who benefit from these advances include those who would have had traditional surgery, but also those who would have chosen to live with the pain and discomfort, rather than the risk and recovery time associated with traditional knee surgery. As with arthroscopic knee surgery, minimally invasive cardiac surgery provides the opportunity to apply technological solutions to fulfill unmet clinical needs.
The keys for adopting minimally invasive techniques will be safe, repeatable, and acceptable patient outcomes. Once procedures evolve so that the cardiac surgeon can treat conditions such as heart valve disease without the need for a sternotomy or cardiopulmonary bypass, patients will be able to more quickly recover and return to normal activities. Rather than delaying surgery, as is often the case today, patients will likely opt for earlier interventions leading to an increase in the number of surgeries being performed. Another likely benefit, which has been demonstrated in the past is that these earlier interventions should also improve patient outcomes.
My belief is that MIS is strongly preferred by patients, and our history is that we evolve procedures incrementally toward excellence. It is the industry and physician's responsibility to develop these procedures with a focus on safety and efficacy.
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