Heart Failure Treatment Options

Although heart failure is a chronic condition with no cure, there are heart failure treatments that can slow the progression of the disease and improve your quality of life. In fact, the outlook for people with heart failure is more encouraging than ever before.

The heart failure treatment options chosen by your doctor are dependent on your heart failure classification, ejection fraction and other clinical factors. Typically doctors use the Heart Failure Classification created by the New York Heart Association (NYHA), which divides heart failure into four classes: NYHA Class I, II, III, or IV.

Today’s treatment options include:

Lifestyle Changes

Your doctor may advise you to make lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, limiting your sodium intake, losing weight or reducing your stress level. These changes can help relieve some of the symptoms associated with heart failure and reduce strain on your heart.

Heart Medications

Many kinds of medications are used in treating heart failure. Your doctor may prescribe ACE inhibitors, Beta-blockers, blood thinners and diuretics, among others. In general, a combination of heart medications is typically used.

Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

You may be eligible for an implantable heart device called Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT), a clinically proven treatment option for treating some heart failure patients. With CRT, a heart failure heart device sends tiny electrical pulses to the lower chambers of your heart to help them beat in rhythm and to try to improve the pumping efficiency of the heart.

Heart Surgery

If your heart failure is caused or made worse by a weak valve, sometimes the best course of action is heart surgery to repair or replace the valve. If a patient’s heart failure is serious and irreversible, heart transplant surgery may be considered.