[Minimally invasive direct cardiac surgery with the jakoscope retractor]

The authors present a surgical retractor named jakoscope, useful in the field of abdominal, urological, vascular, thoracic and cardiac surgery procedures. This multifunctional device offers the possibility to utilize Minimally Invasive Direct Access Surgical Technology (MIDAST) in the above mentioned surgical specialties. In their department the authors use the jakoscope retractor for aortic valve replacement, off-pump coronary bypass operations and radiofrequency pulmonary vein ablation by mini-thoracotomy approach. In this report they published for the first time their experience with jakoscope device in the field of cardiac surgery. In these operations the device assured adequate minimally invasive direct access, without complications.