Minimally Invasive Procedures

Thanks to advancements in engineering and computer technology, you can avoid large scars and long hospital stays. Minimally invasive surgery, also known as laparoscopic or endoscopic surgery, uses a tiny camera and long, thin surgical instruments. They are inserted through very small incisions. The result is less pain, shorter hospitalization, faster recovery and smaller scars.

Our hospital was the first in the region to offer all of today's most current options for aortic and pulmonic valve replacement for those who can't have surgery.

During your procedure, surgeons use a catheter to guide a prosthetic device to the diseased aortic valve. The device expands and replaces the failed valve. This technique is called transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR. It allows the surgeon to replace your valve while your heart is still beating.

The latest robotic procedures allow our surgeons to perform minimally invasive treatments more efficiently and precisely than ever before.

The da Vinci® Surgical System is a versatile technology that can be used for many types of procedures. It provides 3D imaging for a more accurate view of internal organs. Your treatment is completely controlled by your doctor, who operates the da Vinci system using hand movements. These movements are translated by the system into more precise movements, allowing more complicated procedures to be performed through smaller incisions.

With this technology, doctors are also able to perform coronary bypass surgery and stenting at the same time.

We're one of the few hospitals in the area offering nonsurgical closures for PFO (patent foramen ovale) and ASD (atrial septal defect). The technique allows doctors to close the defects using a catheter, rather than open surgery.

Because our surgeons specialize in conditions of the chest, not only the heart, they also operate to remove lung tumors. Traditional surgery to remove a lung tumor requires a 4- to 6-inch incision. But surgeons at The University of Kansas Health System can remove lung tumors making a single, 2-inch incision with Uniport. Most patients are able to return home after only 2 days in the hospital.

Our surgeons are among the first in the country – and among a few in the world – with the expertise and experience to perform this procedure.

This is an innovative treatment for people with severe hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which causes thickening of the heart muscle. Alcohol septal ablation is an alternative to open heart surgery that reduces the proportion of tissue blocking the blood flow due to thickening of the heart muscles. This procedure is an option for people who are unable to have surgery.

For people with chronic or hard-to-treat atrial fibrillation, hybrid ablation can be an excellent treatment option. This technique combines catheter and surgical approaches and requires both a heart surgeon and a heart rhythm specialist. Hybrid ablation helps ablate, or destroy, damaged tissue from both inside and outside the heart. The ablation also corrects the electrical pathways that were causing the heart rhythm problem.