Portaclamp in video-assisted minimally invasive cardiac surgery: surgical technique and preliminary clinical experience

Video-assisted minimally invasive cardiac surgery (VAMICS) is currently performed with various indications. However, despite the increasing evidence of its effectiveness, new approaches have to be defined to simplify this procedure, minimize its potential complications and limit its costs, for a wider use in the surgical community. The limited access to the aorta is a key point in VAMICS and mandates specific clamping modalities with their own limitations, costs and drawbacks. The Portaclamp (Cardio Life Research SA, Louvain la Neuve, Belgium), a new autoguided extravascular aortic cross-clamping system, has been recently proposed to facilitate VAMICS. Herein, we describe the Portaclamp approach and report our indications and preliminary clinical experience so to define its role in VAMICS.