Since the development of minimally invasive coronary surgery, nomenclature has rapidly grown to distinguish each unique method. The goal of this review was to provide a comprehensive overview of the different terms used for minimally invasive coronary bypass grafting through the years.

A literature search was performed in August 2024 using the PubMed electronic database. To extract the best search results: “minimally invasive” and “coronary artery bypass grafting” were used as either keywords or MeSH terms. The term robotic was specifically included for a second search. Eligible articles for this review were articles using an abbreviation to describe minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting.

A total of 2118 publications on non-robotic minimally invasive coronary procedures and 392 on robotic-assisted techniques were reviewed, describing 40 unique terms for the procedure. Procedures were grouped based on left internal mammary artery harvest and anastomosis methods: mini-thoracotomy for both harvesting and coronary anastomosis (n = 586), endoscopic harvest with mini-thoracotomy (n = 37), robotic harvest with mini-thoracotomy (n = 144) and closed-chest revascularization (n = 140). Minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafting was the most studied technique (486 publications, non-robotic and robotic), followed by closed-chest totally endoscopic coronary artery bypass (n = 124).

In conclusion, a wide variety of terms are used within the field of minimally invasive coronary surgery. A total of 40 different terms have been published, each describing certain specifics of the procedure. For anyone involved in the field of minimally invasive surgery, it is important to understand the differences and similarities of these procedures.