Advantage of a more central incision onto left atrium by using ultrasonic scalpel.

Exposure of the mitral valve is of critical importance in mitral valve surgery. The mitral valve is located near the interatrial groove. As we accumulated experience and learned from embryology, we found that a more central left atriotomy was advantageous, and was made possible by interatrial groove dissection using an ultrasonic scalpel. This crucial finding prompted us to report the technique.