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.