What methods are used to perform an aortic valve repair?

and also perform the conventional aortic valve replacement through some non-conventional routes, which essentially means that instead of making a midline incision on the chest, you can sometimes do this procedure by making a smaller midline incision, which is about an inch long, and in that you do not split the full breastbone, you split the top half of the the breastbone to do this procedure. Also, we can sometimes use what we call as a right anterior thoracotomy approach in which an incision is made on the right side of the chest in the second or third intercostal space and that gives you good access to perform this procedure without cutting the breastbone. I mean, this is a more cosmetic approach and generally is a reserve for patients who want to have a cosmetic operation. However, it is extremely important to reiterate that safety is of prime importance and you would only offer this operation if you feel that the operation can be performed safely without increasing the risk of intervention.