What Is Heart Failure?
Congestive heart failure (CHF), also called congestive cardiac failure (CCF) or just heart failure, is a condition that can result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder that impairs the ability of the heart to fill with or pump a sufficient amount of blood throughout the body. It is not to be confused with “cessation of heartbeat”, which is known as asystole, or with cardiac arrest, which is the cessation of normal cardiac function in the face of heart disease. Because not all patients have volume overload at the time of initial or subsequent evaluation, the term “heart failure” is preferred over the older term “congestive heart failure”. Congestive heart failure is often undiagnosed due to a lack of a universally agreed definition and difficulties in diagnosis, particularly when the condition is considered “mild”.
Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can’t pump enough blood throughout the body. Heart failure does not mean that your heart has stopped or is about to stop working. It means that your heart is not able to pump blood the way that it should. The heart can’t fill with enough blood or pump with enough force, or both.
Heart failure develops over time as the pumping action of the heart grows weaker. It can affect the left side, the right side, or both sides of the heart. Most cases involve the left side where the heart can’t pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body. With right-sided failure, the heart can’t effectively pump blood to the lungs where the blood picks up oxygen.
The weakening of the heart’s pumping ability causes:
- Blood and fluid to “back up” into the lungs
- The buildup of fluid in the feet, ankles, and legs
- Tiredness and shortness of breath
Heart failure is a serious condition. About 5 million people in the United States have heart failure, and the number is growing. Each year, another 550,000 people are diagnosed for the first time. It contributes to or causes about 300,000 deaths each year.
