Alternatives to Heart Failure Treatment
In most of the cases, the first solution for heart failure is a bypass or transplant given the fact that people want to take the tried and tested way. Heart failure at most times does not need a complete bypass surgery. It’s just that your heart is not able to pump blood due to various reasons. There is more than one way to avoid the transplant. And if you are getting to avoid a transplant, why should you not? Here are the ways in which you can avoid transplant in case of Heart Failure. Recent advances in heart treatment have opened ways in which a patient can be treated generically well with help of technical devices and medicines. Let us check it out.
What do in case of Heart Failure?
In case of a heart failure or attack, the vital symptoms must not be ignored while the kin must call 911 for emergency services. The doctor on the other hands must try out in hand procedure and should avoid heart transplant or surgery right away and must use devices to confirm the same. High-tech implants can help your doctor to check how your heart is doing in real time in order to adjust the medications needed to upgrade yourself. As per Clyde W. Yancy, MD, Chief of the Cardiology Division at Northwestern University, ‘Heart Failure is no longer about failure, the array of medical and device therapies and the insight we now have regarding prevention makes this both a preventable and treatable condition. The outlook for those with heart failure has never been better.’
Introduction of New Drug treatments
The introduction of new drugs in the medical fraternity has made the treatment of heart failure more easy and precise. It no longer involves risk factors as earlier used to be. In that case, it becomes more reliable and sophisticated. Heart failure medicines can help you de-escalate the dangers in you. To lower the blood pressure or to slow the heart rate, the following drugs can be very helpful:
- Beta-Blockers
- ACE Inhibitors
- Angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs)
- To get rid of salt and water, ‘Aldosterone antagonists’ can be useful
- Diuretics sometimes called water pills
There have also been an advancement in two pills which can help you avoid any sort of heart disease:
Ivabradine (Corlanor) –This medicine is marketed under the name of Corlanor and is effective in slowing the heart rate. It is indicated to reduce the risk of hospitalization for worsening heart failure in patients with stable, symptomatic and chronic heart failure. It may be suitable for patients if the heart failure is caused by problems arising in the heart’s lower left chamber. It can be useful when the heart failure takes place suddenly in a normal heartbeat.
Sacubitril/Valsartan (Entresto) –this combination of two different heart drugs have the potential to reduce your time duration in the hospital. It can’t be used with ACE inhibitors.
Implants and Heart Pumps
Apart from these drugs, the advancements in the implants have reached to phase where they have the capacity to reduce the heart disease to such lower levels. The following devices have stood the test of time and are now ready to help the mankind lower the risk of heart disease –
Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator – It gives the heart an electric shock when it senses a life-threatening change in the beats and rhythm. The newer models are implanted under the skin and they don’t require leads or wires through veins.
Implantable Monitor –This implantable monitor helps the doctors to monitor the heart by measuring the pressure on the arteries and heart rate. It’s about the size of a paper clip and gets inserted into an artery without the need for batteries or wires.
Artificial Heart –When a person with severe heart failure needs a transplant, the artificial heart can be transplanted to replace the lower two chambers of the heart. It has an outside power source and is not permanent.
Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) – the left ventricle is one of the biggest chambers of the hearing on the left side and functions to pump blood throughout the body. An LVAD is a pump which is implanted into the left ventricle and tubes that pull blood in and out of the heart. It is connected to a battery which you carry outside of your body. It can be useful till the transplant is conducted.
These new technological advancements in the field of Heart surgery have definitely helped the patients avoid the hospital and heart transplant as long as possible.
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