This interview highlights the history and evolution of robotic cardiac surgery. At the 2026 American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) Annual Meeting, CTSNet JANS Editor Dr. Mateo Marin-Cuartas, a cardiac surgeon at Leipzig Heart Center, Germany, spoke with Dr. Volkmar Falk, Medical Director and Director of the Department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery of the…
The patient was a 43-year-old man with a background in endurance sports who presented with exertional chest pain. His medical history included a cervical disc herniation in 2020, anxiety disorder, and depression. Computed tomography angiography (CTA) revealed a peripheral pulmonary embolism and a sinus venosus defect (SVD) with partial anomalous pulmonary venous connection (PAPVC), with…
This session features the presidential address delivered by Dr. Gry Dahle at the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery Annual Scientific Meeting 2026. As the society’s first female president, Dr. Dahle—who holds positions at the Emergency Department of Akerhus University Hospital in Nordbyhagen and the Lørenskog Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Oslo University Hospital,…
This week on The Beat, CTSNet Editor-in-Chief Joel Dunning spoke with Dr. Chris Malaisrie, a Professor of Surgery in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at Northwestern University and an Attending Cardiac Surgeon at Northwestern Medicine, about valve-sparing aortic root replacement techniques. The conversation covers a wide range of procedures, including the Bentall, Yacoub, and David…
This video demonstrates central cannulation for surgical closure of a secundum atrial septal defect via a right transaxillary approach. The patient was positioned in a left lateral decubitus position with the right arm elevated to optimize exposure of the axillary region. A limited incision was made in the fourth intercostal space along the midaxillary line,…
This session features leading surgeons discussing various aspects of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) planning at the Transcatheter Heart Valves Greece (THVGreece) 2026 conference. Please note that all presentations are delivered in Greek. The first presentation, “Borderline Annulus: 23 or 26?” was delivered by Dr. Konstantinos Lampropoulos, an Associate Professor of Cardiology at Democritus University…
This propensity-matched analysis compared 10-year outcomes after SAPIEN 3 transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in the PARTNER 2 SAPIEN 3 Intermediate-risk Registry with surgery in the PARTNER 2A trial. Among 2,005 valve-treated patients, 1,069 underwent TAVR and 936 underwent surgery; after matching, 783 patients were included per group. The mean age was approximately 82 years,…
This single-center retrospective study evaluated 61 patients who underwent cardiac surgery after prior transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) during a 10-year period at a high-volume academic center. Cardiac surgery following TAVR was uncommon, accounting for only 0.5 percent of all cardiac operations, but was associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. The most common indications were…
This special “Great Debate” article discusses whether surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) should remain the first choice for aortic stenosis in patients with a life expectancy beyond five years. The pro side emphasizes the scarcity of data beyond five years, conflicting registry outcomes, higher transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) rates of pacemaker implantation, paravalvular regurgitation,…
This Wall Street Journal article documents the dramatic rise in the popularity of transcatheter aortic valves, but it also discusses the issue of early valve failure and the impact it has on patients’ lives.
In this session, cardiothoracic surgery experts gathered to discuss perfusion strategies, redo mitral valve surgery, and endocarditis. These presentations were recorded during the mitral and tricuspid valves session of the Ancona Minimally Invasive and Trans-Catheter Cardiac Surgery Course on May 28, 2026. Presentations: Perfusion Strategies and Complex Scenarios, Part 1 MICS, ISMICS, ERAS, Ancona Meeting:…
In this episode of The Cardiac Recovery Room, moderator Dr. Rawn Salenger, Chief of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, USA, spoke with Drs. V. Seenu Reddy, a cardiothoracic surgeon at HCA’s TriStar Cardiovascular Surgery in Nashville, TN, USA, and Kevin Lobdell, Professor and Director of Regional Cardiovascular and Thoracic…
Partial endocardial cushion defects, presenting as an ostium primum atrial septal defect associated with a cleft in the anterior mitral valve leaflet, traditionally requires a conventional median sternotomy. While sternotomy provides excellent exposure, it is associated with significant surgical trauma, prolonged recovery times, and less desirable cosmetic outcomes. This video presentation demonstrates a sophisticated, totally…
This video demonstrates a robotic-assisted resection of the left fifth rib for oligometastatic melanoma involving the chest wall. An 83-year-old man with a history of cutaneous melanoma presented with progressive left posterior chest wall pain that required escalating analgesia. Preoperative computed tomography (CT) demonstrated two areas of lytic disease involving the left fifth rib, with…
This video demonstrates a Cox-Maze III operation combined with a left internal mammary artery (LIMA) to left anterior descending artery (LAD), as well as an ascending aortic replacement and aortic valve resuspension. The Cox-Maze III was performed after superior vena cava (SVC) cannulation and inferior vena cava (IVC) cannulation percutaneously. Antegrade cardioplegia was administered. The…
This clinical video demonstrates the preservation of a replaced left hepatic artery during the creation of a gastric conduit in a robotic-assisted minimally invasive esophagectomy (RAMIE) for post-neoadjuvant esophageal adenocarcinoma. The patient was a 61-year-old male with cT3N0M0 (Stage IIA) lower-esophageal adenocarcinoma. He completed neoadjuvant therapy with four cycles of fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and docetaxel.…
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