The symptom of mitral valve regurgitation is shortness of breath but if it continues longer the heart muscle will grow weaker and it could lead to congestive heart failure. One in ten Americans suffers from mitral valve prolapse and the vast majority has no symptoms and will never know that they have it. Valves are located in your heart to keep blood from backing up.

With aging, some of these valves can stretch and to close completely, so they allow a small amount of blood to leak backwards. This is usually harmless, but can be associated with an irregular heart beat or chest pain caused by a stretching of the muscles that hold the valves in place.

Fortunately there is hope for those people to fix their health problem by mitral valve surgery. The success rate of this surgery is high especially at the University of Maryland Heart Center which is now able to repair about 92 percent of all mitral valves. At the Maryland Heart Center, specialize in the surgical treatment of valvular disease, including mitral valve 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).

Mitral valve repair gives more advantage for the patient because it will improve long-term survival. cardiac surgeons at the Maryland Heart Center are leaders in repairing the mitral valve. About 92 percent of patients at the Heart Center will have their valve repaired instead of replaced. Report from University of Maryland says that mitral valve replacement are very durable and the patients will have a perfectly working valve 20 years after mitral valve surgery.

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