ABSTRACT
Cardiac surgeons have made signi cant strides in developing less-invasive operations over the past 20 years. An explosion in new technology has facilitated these advancements and allowed surgeons to perform coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, valve surgery, ablation for atrial brillation procedures, and even proximal aortic operations without median sternotomy, which has been the traditional approach for access to the heart. Collaboration
between cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons has led to novel minimally invasive approaches, which take advantage of catheter-based technology combined with surgical techniques, which can yield excellent results for patients with heart disease.
