Heart failure is a fatal and slowly progressing condition that affects millions worldwide. Regardless of the underlying causes of heart failure, it is defined by the American Heart Association as the inability of the heart to keep up with the workload of pumping blood throughout the body. While there is no cure for heart failure, the symptoms can be controlled to increase longevity and the patient's quality of life.
Biventricular Pacemaker
A failing heart has been traditionally cured through medications that decrease the load on the heart, and if that fails to halt the progression of heart failure, more extreme measures, including surgery, are resorted to. Implantable medical devices, mainly pacemakers, have long been used as a last-resort treatment for heart failure. An innovative treatment, the biventricular pacemaker, is employed successfully at the Cleveland Clinic. According to The Cleveland Clinic, the biventricular pacemaker is also known as the cardiac resynchronization therapy device. It is used in patients who have a delay in the heart's electrical conduction system, causing the heart's contractions to be weak. The biventricular pacemaker is a battery-operated device that is implanted under the skin with three wires that are inserted in the various chambers of the heart. When the heart does not beat enough times per minute, the device sends electrical signals to both ventricles, which are the pumping chambers of the heart, allowing them to properly contract at an acceptable rate. Biventricular pacemaking has been proved to increase the amount of blood pumped out by the heart to the body through the aorta. This is measured clinically by the ejection fraction. The Cleveland Clinic asserts that biventricular pacemakers improve patients' ejection fraction by between 5 percent and 10 percent.
Cardiac Muscle Regeneration
In many instances, heart failure is caused by a reduction of the mass of functioning cardiac muscles. After the death of a part of the heart due to a heart attack brought upon by the cessation of blood supply to that region of the heart muscle, the dead muscle transforms into scar tissue. As reported by the U.S. National Institute of Health, there is extensive ongoing research and clinical trials on stimulating the ability of the cardiac muscle to regenerate, a process known as myogenesis.
Artificial Heart
According to the American Heart Association, an artificial heart may be the only viable solution for people with severe end-stage heart failure. In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first artificial heart meant for long-term use. This artificial mechanical heart is intended for people with severe heart failure who cannot receive a heart transplant. However, it is expected that continuous development and technological advances will render artificial hearts part of routine clinical care for heart failure patients sometime in the future.
