Keyhole surgery enables doctors to escape the traditional operation procedure, which involves cutting the breastbone to replace heart valves through making a small opening in the right chest and visualizing heart with the help of a camera. The keyhole alternative has a lesser mortality rate of around 2-3%.

The surgical procedure has gained immense popularity swiftly because of its various benefits, including less pain, reduced blood loss, minimum risk of infection, lesser recovery time, less scarring and a shorter stay in hospital over the traditional procedure.

Harriet Gould, 67, was the first patient who last week availed the latest procedure. Earlier, she had her aortic valve replaced as well as underwent the replacement of the root around the aorta.

While commenting on her critical case, doctors notified that Ms. Gould is recovering from the procedure and will return home soon, most probably within next week.

“For valve surgery, this will be a very attractive approach”, added surgeon Dr. Tolan, who lead the procedure. “While it is still not a minor operation, the recovery time is much shorter and the impact on the patient overall is much less. The procedure is complicated but is part of the trend of making surgery less invasive for patients”.