Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Heart failure (HF) is a common end stage in any structural or functional cardiac disease advanced enough to impair the filling of the ventricles or blood ejection.If the degree of impairment makes the heart unable to cope with the actual demands of pumping blood, the diagnosis of heart failure is justified.The heart first disables the circulation during exercise and finally, in end-stage HF, even at rest.HF is a progressive process, usually only slowed by the treatment currently available.Thus from diagnosis, the disease will accompany patients for the rest of their lives, sometimes becoming the cause of death.A patient reaching end-stage heart failure should be considered for one of four treatment options: mechanical circulatory support; continuous intravenous positive inotropic therapy; a referral for cardiac transplantation; or hospice care.Before the patient is considered to have end-stage HF, all curable factors potentially causing a deterioration in cardiac function have to be actively explored and corrected.This paper focuses on patients for whom methods to improve prognosis and heart function have been exhausted.The number of such patients is increasing continuously.This is caused by the growing incidence of heart failure, improvement in the medical care prolonging survival, and progress in decreasing the number of sudden cardiac deaths in the early stages of the disease.
Source: Via Medica Journals
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2588119993