Minimally invasive Ozaki technique

Implantation of a mechanical or biological graft remains the gold standard in treatment of patients with aortic valve pathology. However, the necessity of taking anticoagulants, the problem of graft durability, the risk for thromboembolic and haemorrhagic complications, prosthetic infective endocarditis impel surgeons to search for and develop new technologies. One of such new techniques is prosthetic repair of the aortic valve using autologous pericardium according to the S. Ozaki operation. This procedure makes it possible to form an aortic valve with excellent haemodynamic characteristics and low frequency of re-do operations in both the early and remote periods. Current trends are towards exponential growth of minimally invasive cardiosurgical interventions. Upper partial sternotomy is one of the most commonly used techniques in surgery of the aortic valve. The results of previous studies demonstrated that a minimally invasive approach apart from a good cosmetic effect has a series of advantages over full sternotomy by the in-hospital and remote outcomes. On the other hand, a minimally invasive access is associated with limited surgical exposure and tight operative field and is therefore technically more complicated than the operation via full sternotomy. In our retrospective study we compared the clinical outcomes of the minimally invasive Ozaki technique (Ozaki Mini Group, n=30) and full sternotomy (Ozaki Full Group, n=112). Because of differences between the groups by the clinical and demographic parameters in order to ensure maximum comparability we conducted computer-assisted propensity score matching, resulting in formation of 2 groups consisting of 30 patients each. The primary outcome measures of the study were 30-day all-cause mortality and postoperative major adverse cardiac events (myocardial infarction, stroke). As additional categorical outcomes we examined new-onset atrial fibrillation and renal failure, resternotomy, prolonged (>24 h) assisted artificial pulmonary ventilation, mediastinitis/sternal instability. Secondary outcome measures were as follows: the duration of the operation, duration of myocardial ischaemia and artificial circulation, blood loss, requirement for transfusion of donor blood components.