Travel Concerns For Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) Patients

Abstract

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is chronic inability of the heart to maintain an adequate output of blood from one or both ventricles of the heart to meet the metabolic demands of the tissues. With a markedly weakened left ventricle or right ventricle or both, the volume of blood presented to the heart is in excess of the heart's capacity to move it along. Consequently, fluid builds up behind the heart, as a result of which there is a shift of large volumes of blood from the systemic circulation into the pulmonary (lung) circulation. Despite availability of new therapies, the prevalence of heart failure and hospital admission rates have increased and the World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized heart failure as an epidemic condition in this century. 2