 Hello, I am Dr. Devananda, Head of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Manipal Hospital. I have been practicing cardiac surgery for the last 18 years. Like many other operations which we perform today on the heart, even mitral valve repair can be done through minimal access surgery, which is nothing but a small cut on the right side of the chest. But all patients are certainly not candidates for this particular approach. There are various factors which come into play. Basically, we look at two things. Safety should not be compromised whenever we are approaching through the minimal invasive route. So your heart should be in good condition to take it. There should not be dysfunction of the ventricle. At the same time, heart should not have been very very large, so that the access from a very small hole should be very easy. These are two important things we look in. Third important thing is the complexity of the repair itself. If the repair is going to be very very complex, like multiple segments need to be repaired, again the traditional approach of sternotomy is far superior compared to minimal invasive approach. So wherever these complications are not expected, like heart size is normal, function is good, and it is not a very very complicated repair, minimal invasive surgery can be very easily and safely applied in all the repairs.