The hospital provides comprehensive care for the West Baltimore community and tertiary care for Maryland and the surrounding area. The hospital has more intensive care beds than any other hospital in Maryland.
They have Maryland Heart Center (surgical treatments) which they specialize in the surgical treatment of valvular disease, including mitral valve surgery (or mitral valve repair surgery) . Mitral valve repair is used to treat regurgitation (leakage) or stenosis (narrowing) of the mitral valve. Traditionally, surgeons have treated mitral valve disease by removing the diseased valve and implanting an artificial valve (valve replacement).
What is mitral valve ? According to the explanation in their website, the mitral valve (named after a Bishop's miter) is the "inflow valve" for the main pumping chamber of the heart, the left ventricle. Blood flows from the lungs, where it picks up oxygen, across the open mitral valve and into the left ventricle. When the heart squeezes, the two leaflets of the mitral valve snap shut and prevent blood from backing up to the lungs. Blood is directed out of the heart to the rest of the body through another valve, the aortic valve.
Maryland Heart Center is the leader in repairing the mitral valve.. Maryland Heart Center surgeons will first recommend the repair of the valve instead of replacement. If a patient is not a good candidate for mitral valve repair, our surgeons are experienced performing mitral valve replacement with several varieties of artificial valves including mechanical (metal) valves and tissue valves. You need to do major surgery? Just go to the University of Maryland Medical Center.

