Which Surgery is Best? Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery or Open Heart Surgery

If you or your loved one has been told that you need to get the heart surgery done, and your doctor suggests you few surgery options like Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery or Keyhole Heart Surgery which you have never heard of, all you have heard is open-heart surgery and the long recovery time it requires. But for many patients, Minimally Invasive heart Surgery proves to be the best alternative. To know what works best for you, you should know what the other alternatives are.

It is obvious the best cardiologist in India will guide you with the options, but it is always good to have basic knowledge of the options before taking the advice of the doctor.

What is Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery?

In this type of surgery, the surgeon will make a few incisions between your ribs. Then the surgical instruments are inserted through those incisions. Those surgical instruments are connected to robotic arms and controlled by a computer device. This enables the surgeon to perform the surgery and manipulate the instruments more precisely.

This is popular among patients because the patients can return home in two to five days after the surgery. The minimally invasive heart surgery in India takes approximately one to four weeks to recover and it can be done for several cardiac procedures, which includes:

• Coronary Bypass: This can be done for patients needing a left internal mammary artery bypass graft to the left anterior descending artery.
• Valve Surgery: Valve repairs and valve surgeries are the frequently used minimally invasive surgery.
• Beating Heart Bypass: This is the surgery performed while the heart is still beating.

Benefits of Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery in Patients:

• Less pain.
• Less scarring.
• Less Hospital stays.
• Reduced risk of bleeding. 
• Quick recovery.

Risks Involved in Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery:

Like any surgery, Minimally Invasive Surgery also has some risks involved. Risks are with general anesthesia and infections. This surgery takes a longer time than open surgery as it involves robotic equipment. Make sure you are healthy enough to undergo this surgery. In some cases, if minimally heart surgery fails then the doctor has to switch to open surgery, hence, will require a longer time to recover.

What is Open Heart Surgery?

Open heart surgery refers to any surgery in which the chest is opened through a surgical procedure. In this 6-8 inch incision is done by the cardiac surgeon and the heart is stopped while a machine does its work and meanwhile the surgeon performs the procedure.

While looking for heart treatment in India, this is the most common and the traditional treatment chosen by many doctors even now especially for the patients who need multiple coronary artery bypass procedures, complex aortic procedures, complicated cardiac operations, and also to the patients who have had surgery in the past. This method can also be used to correct defects in the:

• Heart Muscle
• Valves
• Arteries
• Other related structures

Prevention is Better Than Cure:

If you are someone who is reading this article has already gone through heart surgery once and wants to prevent heart disease again or never had one, then here are the few steps that you have to be very careful about:

1. Eat Healthy: No matter if you are in your 30’s or your 60’s, age is never an excuse to eat unhealthily. You should always center your eating plan around vegetables, fruits, whole grains, proteins, lean animal proteins, and fish. Making smart decisions like controlling your daily cravings, binge eating once or twice is ok.
2. Stay Active: Move more- one of the best ways to prevent disease is to be active. Find an hour for you to exercise.
3. Keep A Check on Your Weight: Few people who are strict in their routine and they maintain their weight for years. So it is never an impossible task. All it requires is determination and persistence. Stay at a healthy weight. Lose weight if you are obese.
4. Tobacco-free Life: Life is always better when staying away from all these bad habits. If you are already addicted and do not want to get infected by any disease, it is always better to reduce the consumption and slowly end it.
5. Be Obedient: If you are a diabetic, blood pressure, or cholesterol patient your doctor might have asked you to take some medications daily. Then be obedient, take all medicines as directed. Never stop any medicine without a doctor’s advice. And never try self-medication.

Choosing The Best Surgery:

There are top cardiac hospitals in India that will guide you right for the best surgery and it is always important to choose the best hospital and experienced surgeon in all approaches. The key point every patient must take care of is, do not to shy away from clearing your doubts, trusting your doctor is great and important but clearing your doubt relating to surgery options will give you confidence.