Over a period of 5 years, a total of 25 patients were recorded: 11 in the sternotomy-group and 14 in the VATS-group. The baseline characteristics of the patients were well balanced. Most perforations occurred at the left atrium (n=10) followed by left atrial appendage (n=4). Least likely places of perforation are aorta, right atrium, coronary sinus and right coronary artery of which we only observed one case each (Table 1 ).

Table 1: Perforation sites

There were no statistical differences in the baseline preoperative characteristics (gender, age, BMI). Table 2 displays the results for the primary endpoints. Significant difference was found for 30-day mortality, which was higher in the sternotomy-group. Mean length of ICU and hospital stay was shorter for the VATS-group, however this difference was not significant at alpha level of 0.05.