Volkmar Falk

TL;DR: Robotic‐assisted less invasive mitral valve surgery has evolved to a reliable technique with reproducible results for primary operations and for reoperations.

TL;DR: A rational design of surface modifications in micron range is explored to optimize a topography comprised of a symmetrical array of hexagonal pits interfering with focal adhesion establishment and maturation to reduce cell adhesion.

TL;DR: Dynamic 3D echocardiography is feasible and can provide good insight into valvular motion and allows adequate preoperative planning when reconstruction is being considered, however dynamic 3D reconstruction is currently limited by the quality of the original 2D echo cross sectional images which can be adversely affected by minimal patient movements, breathing, or cardiac arrhythmia, thus limiting accuracy of the 3D TEE significantly compared with 2D Tee.

TL;DR: Mitral regurgitation has a prevalence of 2% in the general population and is even more common in the elderly, while functional MR is a consequence of pathology affecting one or more components of the mitral valve apparatus.

TL;DR: A new generation of surgical telemanipulation systems has helped to overcome the limitations of conventional endoscopic tools and provide tremor filtering and motion scaling and allow dexterous manipulations in confined spaces through ports or trocars.