There are times when heart failure continues to worsen despite our best medications and devices. If this happens, we consider this to be advanced heart failure. There are several options once patients get to this point. For either of these options, we move your care to a specialized clinic at Houston Methodist Hospital, but our physicians will continue to manage your care in our HCVA facility.
Ventricular Assist Devices
Ventricular assist devices or LVADs are devices that can be implanted into the left ventricle of your heart, and assist your heart by pumping blood to the rest of your body. These can be used as a bridge to give us more time prior to going through heart transplant or can be used without planning to pursue transplant. Although undergoing either a heart transplant or an LVAD has risks, patients who are in end stage heart failure that pursue a LVAD live longer and experience a better quality of life with less heart failure symptoms than patients who do not seek out advanced therapies.
Heart Transplant
Heart transplant is another option for patients with advanced heart failure. In order to qualify for heart transplant, we will need to run a series of tests to make sure that each patient is a good candidate for transplantation. If this is deemed a good option, our team will present your case to a team of physicians, which will make the decision regarding whether or not each patient can be listed for transplant. Depending on how weak the heart is, some patients can wait at home for a transplant, and some stay in the hospital while waiting for a good match. Like LVAD, heart transplantation also has risks, and patients who receive a transplant will need to follow up closely and take immunosuppression for the rest of their life, but patients who undergo transplant live much longer and with a better quality of life than those who do not pursue this option