Minimally invasive surgical options in pediatric heart surgery.

Surgery for congenital heart disease has changed considerably during the last decade. Improved surgical results in patients with simple congenital heart disease and new interventional cardiology procedures have stimulated the surgeon to adopt minimally invasive techniques with the aim of reducing the patient's surgical insult and obtaining good functional and cosmetic results. As a consequence, new surgical techniques and special equipment for minimally invasive heart procedures have been developed and refined in recent years. This article reports on our institutional protocols for minimally invasive surgery in children and adults with congenital heart disease.