During the cardiac surgery, heart-lung-machine which takes over the role of heart & lungs, and median sternotomy for clear visibility has been commonly used. Though this method does provide satisfactory result, the possible complications due to sternotomy as well as postoperative pain and scarring did cause great discomfort especially for women.

Minimally invasive surgery, especially endoscopic surgery has become popular in many surgical fields starting 1990s. Although applying these changes in cardiac surgery was technically challenging due to the need of sternotomy for visibility and extracorporeal circulation, the attempt to apply the technique has been ongoing steadily; non-pump coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), minimally invasive or modified sternotomy. Currently, 3 types of minimally invasive surgery are used in the field of cardiac surgery.

Minimally invasive cardiac surgery provides greater patient satisfaction. Cardiac surgery is directly related to the patient’s life, thus, safety and accuracy of the surgery must be considered primarily as well as the method of the surgery. With recent development of various devices and the accumulation of surgical experience and know-how, the minimally invasive surgery has started to get recognized as a plausible procedure.