Robotic Heart Surgery

At the University of Maryland Medical Center, you have access to an innovative and less invasive approach to heart procedures with robotic surgery.

Most heart surgeries need to open the center of your chest and cut through the breastbone to reach your heart. This is called a median sternotomy.

Instead, we use the da Vinci robotic platform. This lets us operate on your heart between your ribs on the right or left side of your chest. We avoid cutting or spreading any bones by using this robotic platform.

Benefits of Robotic Heart Surgery

Robotic surgery offers many benefits, including:

• Less pain after surgery
• No scar in the center of your chest
• A shorter stay in the hospital
• A quicker return to activities like driving and strenuous exercise, that can normally take two months or more to resume after surgery
• A lower risk of wound complications and infections by avoiding bone division

Types of da Vinci Robotic Surgery

University of Maryland Medical Center can perform the following heart procedures with the da Vinci robotic platform:

• Mitral valve repair and replacement
• Tricuspid valve repair and replacement
• Repairing holes in the heart tissue (for example, atrial septal defect and patent foramen ovale)
• Tumor removal (for example, atrial myxoma and fibroelastoma)
• Stroke prevention
• Creating scar tissue to treat atrial fibrillation (biatrial MAZE ablations)
• Heart bypass surgery, sometimes combined with angioplasty and stenting

Are You a Candidate?

Fortunately, most patients are candidates for this approach. Our heart care team will complete a series of studies to confirm if you're a candidate.

For more information or questions regarding robotic cardiac surgery, or to be seen by a member of the robotic cardiac surgical team, please call 410-328-5842.