Patient demographics
In the entire cohort of 439 patients, the sternotomy group (n=189) showed a higher NYHA class (p<0.001) and underwent more frequently prior cardiac surgery (sternotomy: 26.5% vs. MIVT: 4.8%, p<0.001). After propensity-score matching for these variables, 345 patients were retained for analysis, respectively 95 in the sternotomy group and 250 patients in the MIVT group, showing comparable demographics(Table 1).