The era of long incisons is history, technology has advanced in the years gone by and today imaging technology has made what was in the late nineties a dream, now a reality. Endoscopic heart surgery is here to stay.

The endoscope is a cylindrical instrument at the end of which is mounted a high definition camera with a magnification of sixteen times what the human eye sees. With the help of this device we can image the heart and its interior structures on a television monitor and the surgeon can perform most open heart surgical procedures.

The list is growing with improvements in instrumentation and the size of the incision required to navigate these instruments has gone from 6cm to around 4cms now. The number and complexity of the procedures is also growing.

Your aortic aneurysm may not have the right shape, or it may be too close to other organs. Your doctor or vascular surgeon will help you decide whether endovascular stent grafting or open surgery is the best treatment option for you.