HCA Florida Northside Hospital offers minimally invasive procedure
Heart valve surgery just became less stressful with new minimally invasive options being offered at Northside Hospital.
HCA Florida Northside Hospital is offering a minimally invasive option to open heart surgery for patients needing heart valve surgery. Cardiothoracic surgeon Clarence Owen, MD performs this procedure through a very small incision using thoracoscopic visualization, eliminating the need for cutting the breast bone, as is done in traditional heart surgery. This procedure is ideal for patients who need mitral valve repair or replacement. Compared with open heart surgery, this approach often means less pain and a quicker recovery. Additional advantages for patients with the minimally invasive procedure can include:
- Smaller, cosmetically more appealing incisions
- Decreased blood loss
- Decreased pain
- Shorter hospital stays
- Quicker return to normal activity
- Decreased risk for additional surgeries
- Patients prefer it to the more invasive approach
- More natural exposure of the mitral valve
Mr. Carroll had mitral valve repair surgery in November 2023. “I have four inch incision under my ribcage on the right side. I have no issues and never felt pain there. My hospital care was phenomenal. I cannot say enough about the nurses and doctors. It was a quick recovery, healing and I was discharged in four days. My breathing is noticeably improved from what it was prior to surgery. I had a friend who had open heart surgery 10 days after me. It has been interesting comparing our recoveries, with my friend in the hospital seven days and I was in for four days.”