Via practica 2/2007

Managment of end stage of heart failure

Patients in the end stage heart failure have a poor prognosis. one year mortality is 30 percent. Transplantation is the optimal solution in patinet with terminal heart failure. Unfortunatelly this therapy is not available for the majority of patients. optimalisation of regimen and pharmacoptherapy is necesseary in patinets with terminal heart failure. As a bridge to transplatnation several alterantive with different availability exist. These are inotropic agents, cardiac resynchonisation therapy, implntable cardioverter-defibrilators, plasma ultrafiltration, left-ventricular assist devices, artificial heart and ventricular reconstruction surgery. In terminal phases paliative therapy and etical issues is of importance.

Keywords: heart failure – cardiac resynchronisation therapy, implantable cardioverter- defibrilator, left vetricular assist device, vetricular reconstruction surgery