Periareolar Approach in Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery; New Trend.

The first successful cardiac operation was performed in 1896, in Germany by Rehn (1), followed by the first successful cardiac valve operation in 1912 by Tuffier (2) and the first successful mitral valve operation in 1923 (3).

In 1956, Lillehei repaired multiple valvular lesions through a right thoracotomy using cardiopulmonary bypass (4).

In the 1990s, the success of laparoscopic operations in general surgery renewed an interest in minimally invasive approaches for cardiac surgery. Navia and Cosgrove (5) and Cohn et al. (6) performed the first minimally invasive valve operations via the right parasternal and transsternal approaches. Remarkably, excellent exposure was achieved through smaller incisions, thereby making complex valve repair possible and safe.

In 1996, Carpentier et al. (7) performed the first video-assisted mitral valve repair through a minithoracotomy using ventricular fibrillation. With more experience, video-assisted, 2-dimensional endoscopes and robotics were introduced by Carpentier (7) and Chitwood (8,9).

In 2009 Poffo et al (10,11) describe a new technique of minimally invasive cardiac surgery. He and his colleagues adopting periareolar access for mitral valve surgery since 2006 and published this technique in 2009.