Pediheart Podcast #390: Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery In Children

This week we discuss a recent report from the team at SickKids in Toronto on minimally invasive cardiac surgery. What sorts of operations are most common for this approach? Why are length of ICU and length of hospitalization periods lower in this surgical cohort than more traditional midline sternotomy approaches? How does one train a surgeon to perform these operations if the surgical exposure is so small, allowing only the priimary surgeon to see the majority of the surgery? What are the limits of this sort of surgical approach? These are amongst the questions posed to the first author of this work, Associate Professor of Surgery at University of Toronto, Dr. Christoph Haller. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2025.12.009