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Miami Minimally Invasive Valves
Joseph Lamelas, MD
Dedicated to the Advancement of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery
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Double Valve Surgery

In my quest to facilitate and simplify minimally invasive, right mini-thoracotomy aortic valve surgery over the past 11 years, I have tried many different techniques and devices.

I believe that the aortic cuff  (Miami Instruments, Miami, FL) significantly facilitates and improves the exposure necessary to perform an expeditious and safe operation.

I am constantly asked how is it that I insert the aortic cuff. Due to this, I have decided to make a short You tube video. This is the current and most effective way to insert the cuff.

Of note, patients that have a heavily calcified aortic root may not be good candidates for insertion of the cuff. The cuff needs a semi compliant aorta in order for it to expand inside the root.

There may also be difficulty with insertion of the cuff in patients with a bicuspid aortic valve.  In these patients, with fusion of the left and right cusps, I will place the cuff through the commissural stay suture between the left and right cusp. (Normally it will be placed through the suture between that left and non-coronary cusps). This is not always perfect but does help. If the cuff slips in these cases, I will remove it.

There are also a small group of patients who can have the procedure performed without a cuff because visibility is adequate.

Insertion of Aortic Cuff  (you can click this link or copy and paste the link below)

 

 

I have performed a total of 35 minimally invasive MVRepairs with an anterior leaflet augmentation for multiple different pathologies including rheumatic disease. severe MAC, radiation valvulopathy, and severe SAM with IHHS.

33 have been with bovine pericardium, 1 with untreated autologous pericardium and 1 with CardioCel.  I have not used CorMatrix because of the multiple reports claiming that on the left side of the heart, there can be a disruption of the patch.  I cannot personally attest to this since I have only used it once on a tricuspid valve reconstruction.

The last of the 35 cases that I performed an anterior leaflet augmentation was with CardioCel.  I found it very comfortable to work with.  It is very flexible and soft and it is easy to pass a 5-0 needle through it. A  saline test of the valve can be performed with this material as opposed to bovine pericardium which is very stiff and competency of the repair can only be assessed once the heart is beating.

I think this will be my go to patch for now and would like to eventually compare its results with the bovine pericardial cases. Of note, I have been told that all of the bovine pericardial patches will eventually calcify but I have not seen that yet since my follow up is not long enough.

I have enclosed pictures.  All of my cases have been performed via a right lateral mini thoracotomy. I truly believe that the visualization is superior to a sternotomy in addition to the fact that a more extensive and complete myectomy can be performed via the mitral valve.

 

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Along my journey to constantly try to modify, simplify and improve all of my minimally invasive approaches, here is another one.

Since I very rarely use retrograde Cardioplegia and have gone to a one shot Modified Del Nido solution (4 parts Blood: 1 part Del Nido with 40 mEq of potassium, with a 2 liter induction dose, which allows me for 90-100 minutes of SAFE arrest time), I needed to have a device to retract the right atrial appendage in mini AVR procedures.  I have tried many different devices and maneuvers but placing a number 2 silk inside of an IV tubing and looping it out of one end provides the necessary retraction. The tubing and loop are passed through my chest tube incision or utility port.  My LV vent which is placed into the right superior pulmonary vein is also exited through the utility port. You will also see in the pictures a third tube, which is a long IV tubing (not to be confused with the loop tube) which is used as a guide to help pass all of the above through the utility port and avoid creating multiple false tracts in the chest wall as well as avoid damage to the intercostal vessels.DSCN9025DSCN9029DSCN9038DSCN9036

I have enclosed pictures to demonstrate this.

I have enclosed a link to the Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
I have submitted 4 publications to this journal that I would like for all of you to review.
Two are relevant to Minimally Invasive AVR/MVR, one on Minimally Invasive AVR, and one on Building a Minimally Invasive Valve Program, of which I was a co-author with Dr. Tom Nguyen.
In addition, I think that all of the contributions to this journal are significant and will help advance the subspecialty of minimally invasive valve surgery.
I urge all to subscribe.
There are previous editions of this journal which are excellent and I believe serve as a reference for all Cardiothoracic Surgeons.
www.annalscts.com