Email this pageHeart Failure
Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can no longer pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. Patients experience fatigue, swelling, shortness of breath, and often must give up many activities they previously enjoyed. It’s often debilitating and life-threatening, and is extremely common in patients who have experienced heart attacks. The Strong Heart & Vascular Center is the only center in the region with heart failure specialists, as well as offering the latest treatments for heart failure.
Hear Dr. Leway Chen speak about the latest treatments for heart failure.
Click to see his video
Specialists in heart failure. The most important step in treating heart failure is finding a doctor who specializes in it. The Strong Heart & Vascular Center has cardiologists who are completely devoted to the study and treatment of heart failure. These doctors are aware of the available options, new drugs being researched, and highly advanced treatments like Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs). In many cases, our doctors are even the ones conducting the latest research for helping patients with heart failure. In every case, we work closely with your own doctor. This allows us to treat you effectively and also provide your doctor with all the information he or she needs to continue your care.
Using exercise to improve lives. There are many ways to help patients who suffer from heart failure, and exercise could be one of the simplest and most effective. The Strong Heart & Vascular Center is currently part of a study that evaluates the effects of exercise on people with heart failure. Specifically,it is looking at how exercise improves and extends these individual's lives. The results of this research will be used to help all of our heart failure patients. We are also helping our heart failure patients through providing one of the nation’s largest and most complete heart fitness centers, intended for all patients with heart disease.
Helping the heart to pump. For the most serious cases of heart failure, medications and exercise may not be able to provide the solution. In these situations, the Strong Heart & Vascular Center often relies on something called a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD), also known as an artificial heart pump. Unlike earlier heart pumps—which completely replaced the heart—a VAD simply assists the heart.The patient undergoes an operation where the VAD is attached to the left ventricle of the heart,which is the part of the heart responsible for pumping blood out to the body. The only visible change is the battery pack worn on the outside of the patient’s body that provides power to the VAD.
Once considered a short-term solution for patients who were waiting for a heart transplant, newer and smaller VADs are now dramatically improving lives for those heart failure patients who are not candidates for heart transplants. The Strong Heart & Vascular Center is the only center in the region with VADs, and was recently named the first Ventricular Assist Device Center of Excellence by Abiomed.
A Ventricular Assist Device, or artificial heart pump, is used to assist the heart in pumping blood.
Getting a new heart. In many cases of serious heart failure, the best option for the patient is to receive a heart transplant. For more information on heart transplants, see How we’re changing the way heart disease is treated: Heart transplants.
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