Doctor Q&A: Do Small Chest Incisions Benefit Heart Surgery Recovery?

For example, we received a great patient question from Amy which reads, "I'm having aortic valve replacement with Dr. Kevin Accola at AdventHealth in Orlando, Florida. I was told that Dr. Accola does the procedure with small incisions that are about 4 inches long. Is there any data about the benefits of having a small incision during the recovery from heart surgery?"

To answer Amy's question, we were very fortunate to ask Dr. Accola, who is Amy's surgeon, this question at the 59th Annual Society of Thoracic Surgeons Conference in San Diego, California.

Watch this video to learn how and why Dr. Accola uses smaller incisions to minimize trauma to the patient's body and enhance patient recovery from heart surgery.