The era of long incisons is history, technology has advanced in the years gone by and today imaging technology has made what was in the late nineties a dream, now a reality. Endoscopic heart surgery is here to stay.

The endoscope is a cylindrical instrument at the end of which is mounted a high definition camera with a magnification of sixteen times what the human eye sees. With the help of this device we can image the heart and its interior structures on a television monitor and the surgeon can perform most open heart surgical procedures.

The list is growing with improvements in instrumentation and the size of the incision required to navigate these instruments has gone from 6cm to around 4cms now. The number and complexity of the procedures is also growing.

1. Closure of Atrial septal defect- Also known as a hole in the heart it is an abnormal communication between the two collecting chambers of the heart.

2. Closure of Patent Ductus arteriosus – The ductus is a communicating channel that is essential when we are in the fetal stage once we are born this closes sometimes it stays open and diverts blood from the aorta to the left pulmonary artery and can if left untreated damage the blood vessels in the lung. This can be easily clipped or tied off using endoscopic techniques.

3. Closure of Ventricular septal defect- This is an abnormal communication between the pumping chamber of the heart. Some of them can be closed endoscopically depending on their location.

4. Mitral valve repair/ replacement surgery – This approach has revolutionized mitral valve surgery which was done through the long painful incisions. Now we can do it with a 4 cm incision and patient leaves the hospital in 48 hours. The approach can be applied to all forms of mitral valve surgery.

5. Arrthymia surgery/ MAZE procedure- Some patients present with debilitating palpitations that can lead to formation of a clot in the heart and eventually stroke and death if left untreated. This can now be treated endoscopically using either bipolar heat energy or cryo energy to cause the lesions.