Aortic valve replacement through right thoracotomy.

There has never, to our knowledge, been a report of aortic valve replacement via a right thoracotomy. However, we recently used this approach in 2 young women with severe aortic stenosis. Exposure of the aortic valve was excellent, and we encountered neither technical difficulties nor sequelae related to the right thoracotomy. We believe that right thoracotomy provides adequate access for safe aortic valve replacement and yields cosmetically more appealing results than does median sternotomy.