Recently, Chinese Minimally Invasive Cardiovascular Surgery Committee (CMICS) released the statistical data of minimally invasive cardiovascular surgery in China from 2021 to 2022. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi 'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) ranked third in the number of minimally invasive simple aortic valve surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass, fourth in the number of minimally invasive mitral valve replacement surgery, fifth in the number of minimally invasive aortic open surgery, and sixth in the total number of minimally invasive valve surgery across China. These achievements repeatedly reflect the strength of minimally invasive techniques of Department of Cardiovascular Surgery in our hospital.

As the official academic exchange platform of CMICS, Chinese Minimally Invasive Cardiovascular Surgery Congress 2022 (CMC Week 2022) has been held for 13 years, and it has become the largest and most influential academic congress of minimally invasive cardiovascular surgery in China. At CMC Week 2022 on October 24, 2022 in Nanchang, Professor Wang Chunsheng from Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, Director of CMICS, released the latest statistical data of minimally invasive cardiovascular surgery in China from 2021 to 2022 at the opening ceremony. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of our hospital achieved success regarding the national ranking of minimally invasive simple aortic valve surgery, minimally invasive mitral valve replacement surgery, minimally invasive aortic open surgery and minimally invasive valve surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass, respectively.

On the first day of the congress, Director Yan Yang from Department of Cardiovascular Surgery was invited as a special guest to perform livestreaming surgery of "Minimally invasive aortic valve replacement via the right intercostal+tricuspidvalve plasty+atrialfibrillation ablation+leftatrial appendage closure". Intraoperatively, all team members closely cooperated in an organized manner, fully demonstrating surgical expertise and comprehensive capability of minimally invasive techniques of Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, and the number of online participants exceeded 40,000. Physician Li Jing gave a speech entitled "Endoscopic techniques to harvest the radial artery" at the minimally invasive coronary heart disease surgery forum. Advanced surgical concept and vivid and practical contents were highly recognized by the experts.

In recent years, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of our hospital, as one of the earliest affiliations to establish specialties and carry out cardiac surgery in China, has been devoted to diligence and innovation, catching up with the international development trend and constantly exploring minimally invasive cardiac surgical techniques. The proportion of minimally invasive valve surgery has exceeded 80%. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery has successfully accomplished a variety of demanding minimally invasive cardiac surgery for different diseases, and frontier cardiac surgical procedures, such as TAVI, TMVI and balloon-expandable interventional valve-in-valve surgery through different routes. It is one of the affiliations which can complete most minimally invasive cardiac surgery in northwest China and even China.