Left-sided Heart Failure Condition where the left side of the heart is unable to pump an adequate amount of blood to the body, and can be life-threatening. Pathophysiology With left-sided heart failure a patient can suffer from fluid in the lungs, shortness of breath and pulmonary edema, and fatigue. Since the heart can not pump the adequate amount of blood to the rest of the body, there is a lack of oxygen in the body and this results in fatigue. Left-sided heart failure causes an increase in pressure within the vessels in the lungs, which can lead to an accumulation of fluid within the lungs, which leads to shortness of breath and pulmonary edema. There is a wide variety of causes of left-sided heart failure with include consuming too much alcohol, suffering from a heart attack, infections of the heart muscle, increased blood pressure, hypothyroidism, narrow heart valves, and any disease that can cause damage to the heart muscle. Left-sided heart failure in children is often caused by birth defects including abnormal …show more content…
Treatments include changes in your lifestyle such as reducing sodium, avoiding alcohol, and increasing exercise, taking medication for blood pressure, and possible surgery or carried cauterization. Patients can also take medications such as beta-blockers, digitalis, diuretics, as well as others. Beta-blockers can prevent death in some patients, digitalis slows the rhythm of the heart while increasing the patients heart beat, and diuretics will reduce the amount of fluids retained in the body. In certain cases pacemakers can be recommended or if medications are unsuccessful on their own, a patient may receive a heart pump. As a worst case scenario, a patient may require a heart
Congestive heart failure is an older name for heart failure. Congestive heart failure takes place when the heart is unable to maintain an adequate circulation of blood in the bodily tissues or to pump out the venous blood returned to it by the veins (Merriam-Webster). The heart is split into two distinct pumping structures, the right side of the heart and the left side of the heart. Appropriate cardiac performance involves each ventricle to extract even quantities of blood over intervals. If the volume of blood reimbursed to the heart develops more than both ventricles can manage, the heart can no longer be an efficient pump.
I. Description: Congestive Heart Failure is more of a syndrome than a disease. Heart failure may be classified according to the side of the heart affected, (left- or right-sided failure), or by the cardiac cycle involved, (systolic or diastolic dysfunction). (Schilling-McCann p. 176). The word "failure" refers to the heart's inability to pump enough blood to meet the body's metabolic needs. (Schilling-McCann p. 176). When the heart fails to deliver adequate blood supply edema may develop. (Cadwallader p. 1141). Where edema occurs depends on what side of the heart is failing.
Elise Biggs Dawson English II H 12 March, 2024 Please call CPS "For what seemed like a long time before I decided it was possible Mom and Dad might not come back for me" (Walls 30). Jeanette is waiting for her parents as her father suffers from addiction and instability, which frequently results in unpredictable behavior. Jeanette waits calmly and doesn't panic or assume the worst right once, but as time goes on, she starts to face the idea that her parents might not come back for her. This indicates her ability to face hard realities and adjust to difficult situations. No child at this age should accept the reality that their parents may leave them after they fall out of the car.
Although these interventions may improve immediate survival in the short term, only coronary artery revascularization and cardiac transplantation have been shown to improve long-term survival.” (DeMarco & Chatterjee, 1993)
Heart failure describes the heart’s inability to function properly, meaning the heart is unable to pump efficiently throughout the body. Thus causing the heart to work extra hard in order to compensate the body’s needs, but this ultimately leads to failure. And due to Mrs. Harris’s hypertension and alcohol consumption, she is now displaying signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure, as both are major risk factors. Heart failure can be seen in the left side, which is also known as congestive heart failure, and the right side of heart. The left side is typically the first side to fail, as the left ventricle is the heart’s largest chamber and the most powerful.
Primary treatments include antibiotic therapy, Fluid resuscitation, and crystalloid. Potential treatments depending on patient status include vasopressors and steroids, ventilator, renal dialysis, blood transfusion, and surgery.
It involves the tightening of blood vessels connected to and within the lugs. This makes it harder for the heart to pump blood thorough the lungs, much as it is harder to make water flow through a narrow pipe as opposed to a wide one. Over time, the affected blood vessels become both stiffer and thicker, further increasing the blood pressure within the lungs and impairing blood flow. In addition, the increase workload of the heart causes thickening and enlargement of the right ventricle, making the heart less able to pump blood through the lungs, causing right heart failure. As the blood flowing through the lungs decreases, the left side of the heart receives less blood. This blood may also carry less oxygen than normal. Therefore it becomes harder and harder for the left side of the heart to pump to supply sufficient oxygen to the rest of the body, especially during physical activity.
CHF stands for congestive heart failure. There are several types of congestive heart failure. There is left sided heart failure which may cause fluid to back up into your lungs which will cause shortness of breath. Right sided heart failure may cause fluid to back up into your abdomen, and other body parts. Systolic heart failure causes the left ventricle can’t contract vigorously, which causes problems with the heart pumping blood. The final type is diastolic heart failure means the left ventricle can’t relax or fill up adequately.
CHF starts with no symptoms and slowly the patient experiences increasing difficulty breathing. With that, heart rates and respiratory rates increase and the patient becomes anxious. As CHF progresses, edema (retention of fluids) is found in the legs, feet, and ankles and the veins in the neck are distended. When the left side of the heart fails, there is more lung congestion and more respiratory issues. When the right side of the heart fails, the liver and spleen enlarge. With CHF, patients usually complain of chest discomfort, shortness of breath, and swelling of their limbs.
It because the heart has weak or damaged ventricular walls that are not able to push enough blood into the body (Congestive Heart Failure Symptoms). Or perhaps it is because the ventricular walls are stiff therefore, the heart does not fill with enough blood. If a person has a left sided heart failure the left ventricle doesn’t deliver enough oxygenated blood full of rich nutrients to the body which causes the person to feel tired and out of breath. The left ventricle also increases the blood pressure in the blood vessels between the lungs and the left ventricle. This increases pressure and forces fluid out of your blood and into your lung tissues, which makes it difficult to breathe. If someone has right-sided heart failure he is unable to contract with enough force to send the blood to the lungs in consequence blood builds up in the veins, throughout the tissues in the body which is called edema. Over time the heart failure on either side of the heart results in weakened and enlarged ventricles resulting in less blood pumping to the body. To make up for the decreased amount of blood the nervous system sends out stress hormones that increase the speed and force of the heartbeat. Unfortunately, the continued release of these hormones makes the heart failure worse because they damage the muscle cells in the ventricles (Moore). The common cause of heart failure is
There are many causes for heart failure. The most common cause is coronary heart disease (Moore and Roth, 2015). CHD is a disease in which the coronary arteries are blocked, preventing the heart muscles from getting the oxygenated blood they need. Heart failure can be caused by other present or past conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, abnormal heart valves, diseased heart muscle, irregular heartbeats, heart defects, serious lung disease, poisons or substance abuse, and sleep apnea (Heart Failure Overview).
Mountings of evidence exist on the benefits of physical activity and exercise for patients who have experienced a heart failure (HF) in recent years. HF occurs irrespective of age, therefore there will be no age categorisation within this report even though it is decidedly prevalent in older people, however, distinction will be made in relation to the group most likely to experience an event where pertinent. Owing to that, the intent of this report will be to asses the impact of physical activity and exercise on mortality and morbidity outcomes of those who have experience an event, as well as the advancement of quality taking into account the prognosis of the patients and their ability to undergo a particular exercise prescription.
I am a NP currently working for a Hospital Medicine group in an inpatient setting. My primary job responsibilities are to admit patients into the hospital, round on patients, provide cross cover on the patients on our service, provide cross cover on inpatients who our group is consulted to see, respond to rapid response codes, and occasionally discharge patients.
Heart failure may convey that the heart isn’t working anymore, but what it really means is that the heart isn’t pumping as well as it should be (REF). Heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood through to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen (REF). At first, the heart tries to make up for this by enlarging, developing more muscle mass, and pumping faster. As this happens, the blood vessels narrow to keep blood pressure up and the body diverts blood away from less important tissues and organs to maintain flow to the heart and brain (REF). Eventually, the body and heart cannot keep up and the patient begins to feel fatigue, breathing problems, weight gain with swelling in the feet, legs, ankles or stomach, and other symptoms that eventually leads to a hospital visit. The body’s coping mechanisms give us better understanding on why many are unaware of their condition until years after the heart declines (REF).
Drug therapy consists of; Lasix, antihypertensives, antiemetics, H-2 blockers, erythropoietin, vitamins and electrolyte balancing agents (phosphate, calcium, V-D, Vit-B, and amino acids. Dialysis is mostly the patient’s only way of survival. Nutritional therapy is encouraging patients to avoid ↑Ca and ↑ protein foods. Fluid restriction is important since the kidneys have a difficult time excreting. If left untreated the patient would essentially die. The fluid overload combined with the toxicity of the left over wastes would shut down the body’s organs and death would occur.