Surgical Myectomy: Subaortic, Midventricular, and Apical

Surgical septal myectomy is the preferred method of septal reduction for most patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy whose symptoms do not respond to medical management. Transaortic extended septal myectomy has low operative mortality and provides durable relief of symptoms. Surgical treatment is possible for patients with less common phenotypes, such as complex long-segment septal hypertrophy, midventricular obstruction, or apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. For these anatomic subtypes, transapical myectomy can be used alone or combined with transaortic myectomy. This article describes both of these surgical techniques and discusses preoperative considerations and postoperative management for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.