Foreword

Article Outline

• Copyright

Open-heart surgery for valve disease started in the late 1950s. The advent of mechanical heart valves in 1960 and biologic valves in the 1960s led to a big surge of valve replacement for valvular heart disease. In the early 1970s Carpentier documented the beneficial effects and outcomes with mitral valve repair for mitral regurgitation; the frequency of performing mitral valve repair ranges from about 40 to 70% and in some centers up to 90 to 95%.

In the more recent era, minimally invasive surgery for valve disease is being increasingly performed. This leads to many benefits for the patients including faster recovery, earlier hospital discharge, and improved quality of life.

Professor Mohr and his group in Leipzig, Germany have a huge amount of experience in minimally invasive surgery for valve disease. In this article they discuss the indications, techniques, and patient outcomes, including patient satisfaction and quality of life, with minimal invasive surgery from their own results and also a review of the literature.

The Editorial Board and the Editor are grateful to Drs Walther, Falk, and Professor Mohr for this excellent article and also to Dr Lawrence Cohn^⁎ for his comments.

• ⁎ Dr Lawrence Cohn’s titles include Virginia and James Hubbard Professor of Cardiac Surgery; Harvard Medical School, Division of Cardiac Surgery; and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115.