Can a weak heart be restored?

Although heart failure is a serious condition that progressively gets worse over time, certain cases can be reversed with treatment. Even when the heart muscle is impaired, there are a number of treatments that can relieve symptoms and stop or slow the gradual worsening of the condition.

ucsfhealth.org - Heart Failure Treatment | UCSF Health

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Surgery

Surgical options to treat underlying causes of heart failure

Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG or "cabbage") to prevent and treat heart failure caused by blocked arteries. During bypass surgery, blood vessels taken from another part of the body — usually the leg — are attached to the clogged artery to create a detour around the blockage. This is conventionally done through open-heart surgery, but some patients may be candidates for minimally invasive CABG, an alternative offered at UCSF. Angioplasty, another treatment for blocked arteries. A thin flexible tube called a catheter is inserted through a small incision in the groin or neck into a blood vessel. In one procedure, a balloon is introduced through the catheter into the center of a blocked blood vessel. When the balloon is inflated, the blockage material is compressed back against the walls of the artery. A small metal device, called a stent, may be inserted through the catheter to serve as a permanent barrier to keep the plaque compressed. In another type of procedure, instruments are introduced through the catheter to remove the plaque.

Implantation of pacemakers and other devices such as artificial heart valves

Repairing congenital heart defects

Surgical treatments for heart failure itself include:

Heart Transplantation

Although a heart transplant may be the best option for patients with the most severe types of heart failure, this treatment is available to only a small number of people due to a shortage of donor hearts. Recent advances may make artificial heart transplantation an option in the future. These may be implanted in the chest to increase heart pumping action. Until recently, LVADs required that the patient be hooked up to a large, hospital-based console while awaiting a transplant. Miniaturized battery-powered LVAD units, however, are allowing many patients to leave the hospital. The devices may be used as a primary treatment or as a bridge to heart transplant in adults.

Heart Reconstruction

The electrical signals that cause the heart to contract move in a spiral pattern. Ideally the heart is an elliptical shape, like a football, for this makes it easier to receive the electrical signals that trigger heartbeats. In heart failure, the heart often enlarges and become spherical, more like a basketball, which no longer "fits" the electrical pattern and makes the heart less efficient. A number of promising surgical procedures are being investigated to address this problem by reconstructing parts of the heart to normalize its shape. These heart reconstruction procedures include:

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