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Palliative Care and Decision Making in Advanced Heart Failure

  • Heart Failure (W Tang, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion statement

The diagnosis of advanced heart failure (HF) is established in patients for whom symptoms are refractory to guideline-directed therapies. Palliative care (PC) is based on symptom management and support of the patient and family, making its integration into the care of those with advanced HF essential. Comorbidities including frailty, cognitive dysfunction, and depression are often under-recognized in patients with advanced HF and may correlate with outcomes. Decisions should be based on the patient’s values, goals agreed upon by the clinician with the patient, and what is medically reasonable. Palliative Care should be integrated to help with both palliation of symptoms and support for families and patients.

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References and Recommended Reading

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as • Of importance •• Of outstanding importance

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. Lisa LeMond and Dr. S. Albert Camacho each report no potential conflicts of interest.

Dr. Sarah J. Goodlin reports a research grant from Medtronic.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Knight Cardiovascular Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR, 97239, USA

    Lisa LeMond MD & S. Albert Camacho MD

  2. Oregon Health and Sciences University and VA Portland Health Care System, P3 Med, PO Box 1034, Portland, OR, 97207-1034, USA

    Sarah J. Goodlin MD

Authors
  1. Lisa LeMond MD
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  2. S. Albert Camacho MD
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  3. Sarah J. Goodlin MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah J. Goodlin MD.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Heart Failure

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LeMond, L., Camacho, S.A. & Goodlin, S.J. Palliative Care and Decision Making in Advanced Heart Failure. Curr Treat Options Cardio Med 17, 1 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-014-0359-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11936-014-0359-5

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