Video recording of cardiac surgical procedures: what the surgeon needs to know.

In the past, rudimentary devices were used to record surgical operations. Currently, the introduction of technologic advances such as high-definition television and the miniaturization of high-resolution digital video cameras provides an opportunity for making significantly enhanced surgical records. These enhancements, coupled with the recent advances in telemedicine and surgical simulation, will improve cardiac surgery training and skill acquisition, decrease operative times and costs, minimize morbidity, and improve overall patient care. The present paper provides a discussion of the media technology offered to surgeons for recording a surgical procedure on video. Hardware technology, including different types of cameras and analogical or digital post processing methods, are reviewed with a surgical ''eye''. This ''how to'' paper provides practical suggestions to surgeons in order to enhance surgical video recording.