Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery

Minimally invasive heart surgery is an option for a select group of people with heart disease. At Henry Ford Health, our heart surgeons are pioneers and regional leaders in minimally invasive heart surgery. As an alternative to open-heart surgery, these procedures can be easier on your body while providing safe, effective treatment.

What is minimally invasive heart surgery?

Minimally invasive heart surgery involves one or more small incisions in the middle of your chest or between your ribs. The surgeon inserts specialized instruments through the incisions to access the heart for treatment.

These procedures cause less trauma to the body than open-heart surgery, which requires a long chest incision to access the heart. The benefits of minimally invasive heart surgery include:

• Smaller incisions and less scarring
• Reduced risk of infection and other complications
• Less blood loss and pain
• Shorter hospital stays and recovery time
• Quicker return to activities such as driving or lifting anything more than 5 pounds

Conditions treated with minimally invasive heart surgery

We use minimally invasive procedures whenever possible, but not everyone is a candidate. Your heart surgeon will discuss all treatment options with you to decide which approach is right for you.

The conditions we treat with minimally invasive heart surgery include:

• Aortic diseases: Our heart surgeons can treat conditions that affect the aorta, the body’s largest artery, with minimally invasive techniques. Aortic diseases include aortic aneurysms and aortic dissections.
• Arrhythmia (irregular heart rhythm): We can treat arrhythmias, such as atrial fibrillation, with a minimally invasive procedure.
• Coronary artery disease: Our experienced surgeons perform minimally invasive coronary artery bypass (CABG) surgery. The procedure bypasses a blocked artery to improve blood flow to the heart.
• Heart valve disease: We treat heart valve disease with minimally invasive techniques to repair valves or replace them with synthetic or biological tissue valves. Our heart surgeons perform these procedures using small incisions. We coordinate with the structural heart disease team for transcatheter valve procedures, which use a catheter (narrow tube) to access the heart through a blood vessel.

Schedule a heart surgery consultation

Request an in-person or virtual appointment with a heart team member for evaluation. Our cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons work together to plan your treatment, including heart surgery options.