Because this new technique is less invasive and does not affect

bone, recovery can take a matter of days rather than weeks or

months. (Heart muscle repairs quickly after surgery; the trauma

to bone is what typically causes the lengthy and painful recovery

associated with cardiac surgery.) Scarring is often minimal.

Patients typically spend less time under anesthesia. Physical

trauma is often dramatically reduced, as is emotional distress

during recuperation. For runners and any other athletes, they

can return to training weeks or even months earlier than patients

treated with traditional open-chest surgery. Yet many athletes

who face this type of surgery do not know about this new option.

Another advantage is that surgeons operate on the heart from

the right side of the chest. From this position they can now

repair many valve defects that formerly required more invasive

valve replacement procedures.

Endoscopic cardiac surgery using this technique is available

from only a handful of surgeons at this point. Dr. Douglas Murphy,

who operated on Marianne, is one of the nation's most experienced

cardiac surgeons using this procedure. He has completed about

100 endoscopic cardiac surgeries and now trains other surgeons

in this technique.

Today Marianne's only reminder of her heart surgery is a two-inch

scar under her right breast.

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