Tailored surgical strategies for mini-access open total arch repair

Open arch repair is perceived as a challenging, high-risk procedure, with a barrier against the use of a minimally invasive approach. We aimed to present a mini-access total arch replacement performed by stratified approaches and to evaluate perioperative outcomes to contribute to the body of evidence.

We evaluated 40 consecutive patients (aged 69.5 years; interquartile range, 65.6-76.3 years) undergoing elective total arch replacement using 5- to 8-cm upper mini-sternotomy between 2018 and 2022. Surgical strategies, including arterial inflow site and methods of branching vessel reconstruction, were systematically selected at the individual level. To evaluate comparative outcomes, contemporary cases undergoing total arch replacement via sternotomy with similar eligibility criteria served as a control group, and the inverse-treatment-weighting method was used to adjust for baseline characteristics.

Arch-first anastomosis using trifurcate graft, distal-first anastomosis using 4-branch graft, and island anastomosis were used in 18 (45%), 12 (30.0%), and 10 (25%) patients, respectively. Lower body and cardiac ischemic times were 23.4 minutes (interquartile range, 18.0-29.0 minutes) and 66.7 minutes (interquartile range, 50.1-78.2 minutes). There was no early (30-day or in-hospital) mortality, and 2 patients experienced disabling stroke (5.0%). The contemporary control group comprised 55 patients. After an adjustment, a mini-access group showed lower risks of stroke (odds ratio, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.78-1.00; P = .049) and a composite of major complications (odds ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.68-0.92; P = .003), compared with a sternotomy approach.

Based on present results, mini-access total arch replacement may be performed with reasonable safety and efficiency.