Surgeons Perform World’s First Small-Incision heart transplant Through 8 CM Chest Opening
WORLD NEWS – CHINA: Surgeons at Union Hospital in Wuhan have completed what they describe as the world’s first small-incision heart transplant, a landmark operation that used a minimally invasive route to replace a failing heart. The procedure was led by Dr. Dong Nianguo and his surgical team, who implanted a donor heart into a patient with end-stage heart failure using a novel, thoracoscopy-assisted approach designed to limit surgical trauma.
The team employed a right interior lateral small-incision approach, opening an 8 cm cut through the third intercostal space and avoiding cutting the sternum or ribs. With thoracoscopic assistance, surgeons introduced and positioned the donor heart through that narrow access point, completing the complex vascular and cardiac connections without a full sternotomy. The technique was intended to reduce operative trauma, lower pain, and speed recovery compared with standard open-chest transplantation.
The recipient, a 53-year-old patient with advanced heart failure who weighed just over 40 kilograms, was reported to be recovering well enough to be transferred to a general ward. Clinical milestones cited after the operation included independent eating and the ability to take steps, steps the team framed as early signs of the faster rehabilitation the minimally invasive route aims to achieve. Hospital clinicians emphasized careful monitoring and staged recovery while assessing the longer-term outcomes of the technique.
Surgeons and hospital officials framed the operation as a potentially important advance in cardiac transplantation, one that could expand options for selected patients by minimizing the physical toll of transplant surgery. Further clinical follow-up and broader experience will determine whether the small-incision method can be safely replicated and adopted more widely in cardiac centers focused on reducing postoperative recovery times.
Video originally published on 2026-01-16 04:51:40
