Groin Complications After Femoral Artery Cannulation in Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

Abstract

Background: Femoral cannulation is commonly used during minimally invasive cardiac surgery. We evaluated the occurrence of postoperative groin complications after femoral cannulation in minimally invasive cardiac surgery.
 Methods: This retrospective study included 140 patients who had minimally invasive surgery with femoral cannulation. One hundred twelve patients (80%) had mitral valve surgery, 24 patients (17.1%) had atrial septal defect repair, and four patients (2.9%) had myxoma excision. Their mean age was 41.47± 11.71 years, and 60% were females (n= 84).
 Results: Groin complications occurred in 14 patients (10%); seroma developed in 11 patients (7.9%), two had femoral artery hematoma (1.4%), and 1 (0.7%) patient had femoral arterial dissection, which was primarily repaired. There were no differences in the preoperative data between patients with and without groin complications. Patients with groin complications had non-significantly longer cardiopulmonary bypass time (155± 43.6 vs. 129.8± 35.7 min, P= 0.2) and longer hospital stay (13±3.8 vs. 11.6±4.3 days, P= 0.2)
 Conclusions: Groin complications are relatively uncommon in minimally invasive procedures and are usually simple to manage.