If you have been told that you or your loved one needs heart surgery, then you would want to know all about it right? For most of us, what may come to our mind is an open heart surgery—and the long recovery time it needs. But for many, a minimally invasive heart surgery can also be considered. Here are some facts about it by Dr. Mangesh Kohale, Cardio-Thoracic Surgeon at Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai

Minimally invasive heart surgery is carried out to treat a variety of heart conditions. It can be used for several different cardiac procedures, including: Coronary bypass (is a procedure that restores blood flow to your heart muscle by diverting the flow of blood around a section of a blocked artery in your heart), valve surgery (to repair or replace diseased heart valves), and aneurysm repair (a surgery to repair an aneurysm which is a bulge in a blood vessel caused by a weakness in the blood vessel wall, usually where it branches). Many other heart procedures like mitral valve repair and replacement, tricuspid valve repair and replacement, aortic valve replacement, atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale closure and Atrioventricular septal defect surgery, are done with the help of it.