Top Ten Tips for Palliative Care Clinicians Caring for Heart Failure Patients.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
Heart failure (HF) is an increasingly prevalent condition with a very high symptom burden. To address challenges faced by palliative care clinicians, we assembled a team of experts to provide high-yield tips for the management of these patients. Prognosis is unpredictable in HF and many patients and physicians overestimate survival. Ejection fraction, notably, is not predictive of prognosis. It is important to have thorough discussions about implantable cardioverter defibrillators in terminally ill HF patients. Diuresis is the mainstay of managing volume overload and dyspnea in these patients and it is important to be aggressive and creative to achieve symptom relief. However, HF patients have a high burden of comorbidities and have many symptoms beyond dyspnea as well. Management in hospice remains challenging for these patients, with a significant risk for readmission to the hospital. Almost a quarter of HF patients discharged to hospice from the hospital die in less than three days.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Warraich, HJ; Rogers, JG; Dunlay, SM; Hummel, E; Mentz, RJ
Published Date
- November 2018
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 21 / 11
Start / End Page
- 1646 - 1650
PubMed ID
- 30311835
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1557-7740
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1089/jpm.2018.0453
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States