Caring for people across Maryland, D.C., Northern Virginia-and beyond.
MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute’s cardiac surgery program is home to some of the best heart surgeons and structural heart specialists in the mid-Atlantic region. Here, you’ll find a full team of dedicated experts focused on you.
We have one of the highest-volume cardiac surgery centers in the country. This means we have a lot of experience in techniques that treat all types of heart conditions. You can rest assured that we understand your unique diagnosis and are able to provide you with the least invasive surgical option that also offers the best long-term results.
Cardiac surgeries are done at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, MD, and at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
Our year by the numbers:
Leader in innovation and compassion
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75
Robotic cardiac procedures
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820
Coronary artery bypass surgery
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275
Aortic Valve procedures
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208
Mitral Valve procedures
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52
Tricuspid Valve procedures
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47
Heart transplants
Fiscal year 2024 data
Patient stories
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Aortic Stenosis: Martin Schwartzberg's Story
When Martin Schwartzberg needed a heart valve replacement, he learned he was a good candidate for a minimally-invasive procedure called Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)
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TAVR Patient Story: Bob Cheek
MedStar Health patient Bob Cheek has aortic stenosis and was referred to Dr. John Wang for treatment. Aortic stenosis is a narrowing of the heart valve. He felt extreme fatigue and couldn’t do the things he was used to doing. Common symptoms of aortic stenosis include: chest pain, shortness of breath, lightheadedness and dizziness. Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a minimally invasive procedure to fix the aortic valve. A TAVR procedure requires a very sophisticated team like the one at MedStar Health. Mr. Cheek felt better beginning the morning after his procedure, and his quality of life has significantly improved. He is back to his activities now and feels better than he has in many years.
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Robotic mitral valve repair patient story: Michael P.
MedStar Health patient Michael P. has mitral valve prolapse and mitral valve regurgitation. After researching robotic-assisted mitral valve repair and Dr. Kawano and his team, he wanted to have his mitral valve repaired robotically, and he was a good candidate for this surgery. Robotic-assisted surgery is far less invasive than the conventional sternotomy approach. Robotic surgery is associated with reduced complications, shorter hospital stay, quicker recovery and minimal incisions. He is now back to his normal activities and feeling great.
Why us
Our cardiac surgery program has been a premier destination for patients since the early 1960’s. Since then, we have brought a number of “firsts” to our patients, offering procedures and programs not available elsewhere in the region.
We are proud to be consistently recognized among the nation’s top heart programs for superior outcomes and high volumes, and to employ surgeons who are internationally known for their expertise and contributions to clinical research.
Key metrics
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#31
Hospital in the country for cardiology and heart and vascular surgery. MedStar Washington Hospital Center was awarded
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Among America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care or Coronary Intervention
Awarded to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, and MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center by Healthgrades’ Specialty Excellence Awards.
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High Performing Hospital
High-performing hospital for heart attack care, heart bypass surgery, heart failure care, and transcatheter aortic valve replacement. MedStar Union Memorial Hospital recognized by U.S. News & World Report.
Fiscal year 2024 data
Awards and accolades
Two MedStar Health hospitals have been awarded the highest quality rating—three stars—from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), placing them among the top cardiac surgery programs in the nation.
We are honored to be named a top hospital for Cardiology, Heart and Vascular Surgery by U.S. News and World report. This distinction was awarded to MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
Conditions treated with cardiac surgery
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Aortic disease
The aorta is a long vessel that supplies blood to almost all the major organs in the body through the smaller arteries that branch out from it. Conditions we treat include:
- Aortic aneurysm:
- when a part of the aorta—the biggest blood vessel in your body—gets bigger and weaker than it should be, kind of like a balloon that’s being stretched too much. The aorta carries blood from your heart to the rest of your body. If a part of it bulges out too much, it can be dangerous, because the wall of the blood vessel might tear or burst.
- Aortic dissection:
- The wall of the aorta has layers, for example, like the layers of an onion. An aortic dissection happens when a tear forms in the inside layer, and blood starts to flow between the layers, separating them. It’s like if water got under the paint on a wall and started peeling it off. This can be very dangerous because it can block blood from getting to important parts of the body.
- Aortic ulcers:
- This is a sore or break in the inside lining of the aorta. Sometimes, due to things like high blood pressure or hardening of the arteries, part of the inner lining gets damaged. When that happens, it can form an ulcer—kind of like how the inside of your mouth might get a canker sore. But in the aorta, it’s more serious, because it can weaken the vessel wall and lead to complications like bleeding or tearing.
- Coarctation:
- A condition where part of the aorta is too narrow. When there's a narrowing, it’s like having a pinch in a garden hose. Blood has a harder time getting through, so the heart has to work harder to push it past the narrow spot. This can cause high blood pressure, especially in the upper body, and poor blood flow to the lower body .Some people are born with it (a congenital condition), and it might not cause symptoms right away. Others may feel tired, have headaches, or notice cold legs and feet. Doctors can treat coarctation with surgery or a procedure to open the narrowed area and help blood flow more normally.
- Marfan syndrome:
- This is a condition that people are born with, and it affects the connective tissue in the body. Connective tissue is like the body’s glue — it helps hold everything together and supports your bones, skin, blood vessels, eyes, and organs. Because of it affecting blood vessels, that means it can also affect the heart and especially the aorta. That’s why doctors usually keep a close eye on the heart in people with Marfan syndrome.
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Coronary artery disease (CAD)
The most common type of heart disease in the United States, coronary artery disease is often caused by atherosclerosis, a condition in which the arteries become narrow because of the buildup of plaque. A complete blockage can result in a heart attack or stroke. CAD can be diagnosed multiple ways. Physicians take a detailed patient history, blood work, and perform a physical examination. They may also order one of more of the following tests:
- Chest X-rays use a small dose of radiation to create pictures of the structures inside the chest, including the lungs, heart, and chest wall.
- Cardiac computed tomography scan (Cardiac CT) uses X-rays to create three-dimensional images of your heart and blood vessels.
- An echocardiogram uses high-frequency sound waves to create images of your heart.
- An electrocardiogram, also known as an ECG, measures the heart’s electrical activity.
- Fractional flow reserve, also known as FFR, is a measurement of how well blood can flow through the coronary arteries. Narrowing or blockages in these arteries can lead to a heart attack without treatment.
- Magnetic resonance imaging, better known as cardiac MRI, is a combination of radio waves, magnets, and computer technology to create images of your heart and blood vessels.
- Stress tests are used to assess how your heart works during physical activity. There are several types of stress tests, including treadmill or bike stress tests, nuclear stress tests, stress echocardiograms, and chemically induced stress tests.
Treatments for this disease can increase blood flow to your heart and slow the progression of the disease but are not a cure. Treating the disease involves reducing your risk factors, which may involve lifestyle changes. Your disease also may be treated with medication or surgical procedures, such as:
- Balloon Angioplasty: A catheter is inserted in the wrist or groin then the interventional cardiologists will use X-ray images to guide the catheter through the artery to the blockage. A contrast dye will be injected to allow the narrowed area to be more clearly seen on an X-ray. A tiny balloon at the end of the catheter will be inflated, causing the plaque to mold against the artery wall. The physicians may insert stents, which are small mesh tubes placed within the artery to prevent blockages and allow better blood flow.
- Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery: Restores normal blood flow through narrowed or blocked arteries by using a healthy blood vessel taken from your leg, arm, or chest to create a detour around the problem area.
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Structural heart disease
Structural heart disease is a term doctors use when there is something different about the way the heart is built. The structure or parts of the heart-like the walls, valves, or blood vessels-have a problem. Sometime people are born with it (called congenital heart defects) and sometimes it can develop later in older kids or adults from injections, injuries, or other illnesses. Someone with structural heart disease may feel tired, short of breath or dizzy at times because the heart may be working harder due to these structure issues.
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Heart valve disease
Heart valve disease occurs when at least one of your heart’s valves doesn’t open or close properly, disrupting blood flow. Heart valve disease can be caused by the narrowing of the valve (stenosis) or a leak in the valve which causes the blood to flow backward (regurgitation). The four main types of the disease are:
- Aortic valve disease
- Mitral valve disease
- Pulmonary valve disease
- Tricuspid valve disease
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Heart failure
Heart failure occurs when your heart can’t pump enough blood for your body. Although it is a lifelong condition, treatment for heart failure can manage the symptoms and may allow your heart to gain strength. There are three main types of heart failure:
- Congestive heart failure, in which blood backs up and causes congestion in the body’s tissues. This most often results in swelling in the legs, but it also can interfere with lung and kidney function.
- Left-sided heart failure, in which the heart does not have enough force to pump blood to the rest of the body.
- Right-sided heart failure, in which the heart can’t effectively accept blood from the body and deliver it to the lungs.
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Arrhythmia (heart rhythm disorders)
An arrhythmia is an abnormal or irregular heartbeat caused by a disturbance in the electrical impulses that coordinate your heart rate. This can cause your heart to beat too fast, too slow, or irregularly. When the heart doesn’t beat properly, it can’t effectively pump blood to your body.
An arrhythmia is an abnormal or irregular heartbeat caused by a disturbance in the electrical impulses that coordinate your heart rate. This can cause your heart to beat too fast, too slow, or irregularly. When the heart doesn’t beat properly, it can’t effectively pump blood to your body.
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Congenital heart defects
Congenital heart diseases are the most common type of birth defect, affecting eight out of every 1,000 newborns. One in 50 adults has a congenital heart defect. Congenital heart diseases can affect the walls of the heart, the valves inside the heart, and the arteries and veins that carry blood to the heart or body. Many congenital heart defects are diagnosed before or shortly after birth, but some may not cause symptoms for years.
Cardiac surgeries available at MedStar Health
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Aortic surgery
Aortic surgery describes a number of surgeries to treat conditions that affect the aorta. The aorta is the body’s largest blood vessel, and it carries oxygen-rich blood away from the heart as it’s pumped to the rest of your body. Conditions that affect the aorta can be very serious and even life-threatening without expert surgical care.
Our Complex Aortic Center brings together heart surgeons and vascular surgeons to work as a team on the challenging conditions that affect the aorta, such as aortic aneurysms and aortic dissection. We’re able to do complex surgeries that other centers can’t, including minimally invasive options. And because of our participation in clinical trials and research, our people often have access to treatment options before they’re available in other locations.
Some of the many aortic surgical procedures our doctors offer include:
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm treatments
- Aortic dissection treatment
- Aortic root surgery
- Fenestrated aortic aneurysm repair
- Ascending aorta
- Aortic arch
- Descending thoracic aorta
- Thoracoabdominal aorta
- Infrarenal aorta
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Complex coronary artery bypass graft
Your doctor may recommend this surgery if narrowing or blockages in one or more of your coronary arteries (coronary artery disease) reduce the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your heart. This surgery, also known as coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG, pronounced “cabbage”), restores normal blood flow by using a healthy blood vessel taken from your leg, arm, or chest to create a detour around the problem area. It’s not uncommon to bypass two, three, or more coronary arteries during surgery. You may have heard this called double or triple bypass. This surgery is one of the most common heart surgeries our cardiac surgeons do.
We do nearly half of these surgeries as off-pump bypass surgery, also known as beating-heart bypass. With this method, we use special tools to stabilize a portion of the heart to allow it to keep beating while we bypass the blocked artery. Traditionally, it is done with the help of a cardiopulmonary bypass machine, which temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lungs. This is known as on-pump surgery. Patients who have off-pump bypass surgery recover faster and have reduced risk for complications such as stroke, the need for blood transfusions, and kidney and lung problems
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Heart valve surgery
Heart valve surgery encompasses a group of surgeries to treat heart valve disease. Along with traditional open surgical techniques to repair or replace the mitral valve, tricuspid valve, pulmonary valve, and aortic valve, we offer minimally invasive replacement methods.
Our heart surgeons collaborate with the structural heart interventional cardiologists to discuss and analyze all persons’ conditions based on the severity of their disease, age, and overall health to determine the best treatment approach for their unique condition.
Minimally invasive treatment options
- Transcatheter valve and congenital heart defect surgeries
→ Our structural heart interventional cardiologists do valve replacements by inserting a catheter through a small incision (while done most commonly in the leg, here at MedStar Health, many of our interventional cardiologist use a transradial approach which goes through you’re a vessel in your wrist), threading the device through the vessel to the heart, and then implanting a new valve within the diseased valve. These surgeries include: - Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR)
- Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement (TMVR)
- MitraClip™
- TriClip™ Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Repair
- Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve
- Congenital Heart Defects – PFO, ASD, and VSD occluders
- Robotic surgery
MedStar Washington Hospital Center is one of the few sites in the mid-Atlantic region to offer robotic cardiac surgery. This minimally invasive approach combines the agility of robotic instruments with a high-definition 3D camera, allowing surgeons to do heart surgeries through tiny incisions rather than the traditional open chest heart surgery. Watch our video to learn more now.
- Transcatheter valve and congenital heart defect surgeries
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Heart failure surgery
We offer the latest surgical options for late-stage heart failure where the heart is no longer able to pump enough blood to support the body’s vital organs.
Heart transplant
Heart transplantation allows us to replace your failing heart with a healthier heart from a donor. Your doctor may recommend a heart transplant if other heart failure treatments have been unsuccessful. We do a thorough medical and psychosocial check, including blood tests and imaging studies, to make sure you will benefit from a heart transplant. You will meet with several members of the heart transplant team, including the coordinator, surgeons, cardiologists, social workers, and financial counselors.
If heart transplantation is a good option for you, we’ll place your name on the national waiting list for a suitable donor heart. The wait time to receive a heart can be lengthy, and you may be admitted to the hospital while you wait for a heart. Our team of coordinators will work with you and your family to prepare and support you through the transplantation process and recovery.
Mechanical circulatory support
If your heart is failing or you have recently undergone heart surgery, your heart may need time to rest or recover. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, pumps your blood through a machine so your heart doesn’t have to work as hard to deliver oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body. We also may recommend ECMO to prepare your heart for an help device, such as a left ventricular assisthelp device (LVAD).
People with end-stage heart failure may need mechanical helpance for the heart to do its job. In 1988, we became one of the first centers in the world to implant a ventricular assisthelp device. Our expert surgeons can implant a left ventricular assisthelp device (LVAD) that helps circulate the blood with a small pump. The surgeon will attach the LVAD to your heart’s bottom left chamber and this pump will continuously move oxygen-rich blood from the left ventricle into the aorta, which delivers blood to the rest of your organs. The pump will be connected to an external controller with a wire under your skin. The controller will alert you when the batteries need to be changed or if your device needs maintenance. You can wear the controller in a pack around your waist.
Our team includes experienced LVAD coordinators, along with dedicated pharmacists, physical therapists, nutritionists, and other advanced heart failure specialists.
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Heart rhythm surgery
We were the first—and remain the most experienced—health system in the region to offer Hybrid AF™ Convergent Therapy for treatment of longstanding, persistent atrial fibrillation (AFib). A new FDA label expands this approach to first-line treatment for persons who otherwise face uncertain futures dealing with AFib. Our electrophysiologists and cardiac surgeons work together to do this complex surgery. A cardiac surgeon will make a small incision in the chest and place a scope beneath the breastbone, allowing the team to see the heart during the surgery. The electrophysiologist will insert an ablation device to send a mild, painless burst of heat or cold to create a pattern of scar tissue on the epicardium, the protective outer layer of the heart. Once the epicardial ablation is completed, the incision will be closed. The electrophysiologist will then do a traditional catheter ablation, in which they will thread an ablation catheter through a blood vessel in the arm or groin to the heart to scar the endocardium, or inside layer of the heart. You’ll likely need to stay in the hospital for two to three days after the surgery for recovery and monitoring.
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Leading-edge breakthroughs & innovations
We’re dedicated to staying on the leading edge of care. We take part in multiple cardiac clinical trials. You may have the option to participate in pioneering procedures and emerging treatments not available anywhere else.
Meet our heart surgeons
Through a dedicated multidisciplinary approach, our cardiac surgeons work collaboratively with a team of experts, including cardiologists, interventional cardiologists, critical care physicians, cardiac imaging specialists, nurses, and other clinicians.
Frequently asked questions about heart surgery
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What insurance do you accept?
MedStar Health accepts most major health insurance plans but contact us if you would like to confirm prior to your visit or check with your insurance provider as well.
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What can I expect the day of surgery?
Do not eat or drink anything after midnight the night before your heart operation. Following your surgery, your surgical team will go over any dietary restrictions, if necessary.
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How long is surgical recovery?
Recovery time is dependent on your specific surgery. It takes about six weeks to recover from most surgeries.
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Should I seek a second opinion if I am told I need heart surgery
Here’s why a second opinion is valuable:
- Confirming the diagnosis: It helps ensure that surgery is truly necessary and that all less invasive options have been considered.
- Exploring alternatives: Another specialist might suggest a different type of surgery, a catheter-based procedure, or medical management.
- Getting perspective on timing and risk: Surgeons vary in their experience and approach; a second opinion can clarify the risks, benefits, and urgency.
- Peace of mind: You’ll feel more confident moving forward knowing you’ve explored your options.
When seeking a second opinion:
- Choose a cardiac surgeon who is experienced and/or a hospital recognized for cardiac surgery excellence.
- Bring all your test results (echocardiograms, angiograms, CT scans, etc.) to avoid duplicate testing.
- Don’t worry about offending your first doctor — reputable physicians understand and often encourage second opinions.
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When do my follow up appointments start following surgery?
Your first follow-up appointment will be scheduled before you leave the hospital. Your cardiac surgeon will send a report about your surgery and hospital stay to your cardiologist. Once you return home, it is important that you contact your cardiologist promptly to schedule an appointment, usually six to eight weeks after your surgery, so he or she can determine how well your healing is progressing. At this appointment, your doctor will give you instructions on any changes to your medicines and let you know when you can return to work and begin driving again. They will also schedule regular follow-up visits with you.
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Will I need to consider any lifestyle changes before or after surgery?
It is especially important to manage your heart risk factors after heart surgery, such as lowering high cholesterol, lowering high blood pressure, increasing physical activity, quitingquitting smoking, and maintaining a healthy diet. Your doctor can give a risk factor check and schedule follow-up visits to help reduce the progression of heart disease and the risk of future cardiac events.
Facebook Live: Heart Valve Disease
We were LIVE with Drs. Jeffrey Cohen and Christian Shults, cardiac surgeons, and Drs. Antony Kaliyadan and John Wang, interventional cardiologists, discussing heart valve disease which affects about 11 million Americans.
MedStar Health Cardiac Surgery Hospital locations
MedStar Union Memorial Hospital
201 E University Pkwy.
Baltimore, MD 21218
MedStar Washington Hospital Center
110 Irving St., NW.
Washington, DC 20010
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