Heart failure

This chapter covers the issues surrounding heart failure in patients with palliative needs, including definition of heart failure, Management of heart failure, end-of-life care, complex decision-making, and models of care. Chronic heart failure is a progressive, terminal syndrome and is the final common pathway of many cardiovascular diseases. There is difficulty in defining heart failure as there are many different criteria around the world used to define it. However, common criteria usually include history, physical examination, chest radiography, and echocardiography. The European Society of Cardiology defines heart failure as the presence of symptoms of heart failure at rest or during exercise, and objective evidence of cardiac dysfunction (usually on echocardiography).