Asian Cardiovasc Thorac Ann 2001;9:1-2
© 2001 Asia Publishing EXchange Pte Ltd
A Flight from Minneapolis to Munich
Kit V Arom, MD, PhD
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The John Nasseff Heart Hospital Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
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Initial efforts in minimally invasive coronary bypass surgery were often met with skepticism and hesitation from the medical community, yet there was a great deal of patient support and persistence from those pursuing the field. The idea of minimally invasive coronary bypass surgery rapidly spread to other components of the cardiovascular surgical field.
Because minimally invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) requires enabling technology, the medical industry and device companies readily participated in the development of equipment to improve the performance of MICS. The excitement generated by the rapid introduction of new techniques and technology, cost benefit of eliminating cardiopulmonary bypass in patients with significant comorbid risk factors, and the decrease in tissue trauma of minimally invasive surgery even with the use of cardiopulmonary bypass, generated the scheduling of multiple international meetings. These meetings, often supported by funds contributed by the medical industry, were unsupervised and the core curriculum was not audited. Additionally, individual companies held their own symposia in an effort to popularize devices as well as market their own products. Data were scarce and prospective trials relating to the scientific evaluation of the minimally invasive processes were limited, casting pallor over the development of MICS.
In June 1996, Robert W Emery and colleagues in Minnesota organized the first meeting on MICS in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. There was a high . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Copyright © 2001 by SAGE Publications
