Psychological Effects of Skin Incision Size in Minimally Invasive Valve Surgery Patients

In this article by Piarulli et al, they investigate the effect of a patient's incision for valve surgery on their psychological well-being. They demonstrate in a cohort of 87 patients, with 48 undergoing conventional full sternotomy and 39 undergoing a V-shape hemi-sternotomy approach (n = 39) to their valve surgery, that those with the minimally invasive approach had lower levels of reported depression and anxiety.