Three “keyholes” for rheumatic heart disease

  A middle-aged female patient who lives in Quanjiao, Anhui Province, recently came to the Heart Center of Nanjing Chest Hospital and was relieved of the “heart disease” that had plagued her for years. Unlike what people think of as a heart surgery patient, her chest did not have a long surgical incision, but only three “keyholes” a little thicker than her fingers.  The patient had suffered from rheumatic heart disease when he was young, which seriously affected his work and life. After a little activity, she felt tightness in her chest and shortness of breath, but because she was worried that the incision would affect her beauty, and because heart surgery requires a long rest time and affects her work, she kept putting off her illness. This summer, she heard about a surgery that does not open the chest, so she immediately went to the heart center of Nanjing Chest Hospital for consultation.  ”Traditional valve replacement surgery for wind heart disease involves cutting a wound at least 6-8 cm long in the chest, which causes greater damage to the patient’s body. In addition to being unsightly, patients can feel prolonged pain and have long bed rest and recovery times.” Zhang Dafa, director of Nanjing Chest Hospital, said. Now, using this lumpectomy imaging technology, the drawbacks of the original open-heart surgery are well avoided.  Minimally invasive surgery under thoracoscopy mainly involves three holes in the chest to complete the entire surgical operation. Using these three keyhole-sized holes, the surgeon enters the thoracoscopic probe into the patient’s body, and through the lumpectomy imaging technology, understands the condition of the patient’s body on the display screen, thus obtaining a clearer view of the operation. This has changed the way doctors used to have to complete heart surgery operations through direct vision, allowing them to complete the entire operation without a large incision through the open chest. However, it also places a higher demand on the surgeon’s skills.