What You Can Do About Heart Failure

While there is no absolute cure for heart failure, there are several treatment options available. The best way to go about the condition is to have an early diagnosis and ongoing treatment to delay the progression of heart failure and improve quality of life. Let’s talk about what treatments are available and how they work. When treating a patient with heart failure, treatment depends on the severity of the disease. A patient can have mild, moderate or severe heart failure. Surgery is often required to treat a defective valve or affected coronary artery. In other cases, a pacemaker is needed. Drugs and lifestyle changes are also highly recommended even before and after surgery.

Goal Of Treatment

When considering treatment for heart failure, there are three main goals of treatment: first, to reduce the heart’s workload, second, to improve the function of the heart, and third, to regulate excess salt and water retention.

Surgery

The purpose of surgery is to halt further damage to the heart and help the heart function better. Main surgical procedures for heart failure are surgery of the ventricle and high risk conventional surgeries. Surgery of the ventricle includes heart transplant, LV reconstruction surgery, and implantable left ventricular assist device, or LVAD. High risk conventional surgeries include valve surgery and coronary artery bypass surgery.

A heart transplant replaces a diseased heart with a healthy donor organ. When the diseased heart is taken out, the back walls of the atria are left behind. Blood vessels are reconnected and blood runs through the new heart and rest of the body.

Surgery of the ventricle improves heart failure and symptoms such as chest pain as well as aids in the pumping function of the heart.

The implantable left ventricular assist device or LVAD helps the heart pump blood throughout the body.

Bypass surgery is considered the most common heart failure surgical procedure. This surgery involves grafting or bypassing blockages caused by coronary artery disease.

Valve surgery aims at preserving the natural make of the heart, improving the heart’s function, reducing symptoms, decreasing complications and risks, and improving survival.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy or CRT is a heart failure treatment that treats the delay in ventricle contractions. This treatment is often used in patients with advanced heart failure.

Treating heart failure could also mean treating underlying health problems. For instance, if a fast heart rhythm can be corrected or regulated, then other abnormalities of the heart may also be reversed. One should not mistake this as a cure, though, but rather a treatment that can dramatically reduce symptoms associated with heart failure and improve the longevity and quality of life.

Cardiac Rehabilitation For Heart Failure

After undergoing surgery or treatment, your doctor will most likely recommend that you continue treatment with cardiac rehabilitation. This often involves joining programs and making changes in your lifestyle. Cardiac rehab programs include specific exercise programs, educational programs, and emotional support.

The information in this article should not be made a substitution for advice from a healthcare professional.