The Heart and Vascular Center's Comprehensive Heart Failure Program provides extensive guideline-based management and therapies to patients with heart failure. Our physicians are experts in the field, with skill and knowledge in the most current and promising array of treatment options for people living with advanced heart failure.
Among our treatment options are CardioMEMS™ HF System device, left ventricular assist device (LVAD) and heart transplantation.
The CardioMEMS™ HF System is a device that can provide timely health status information toward modifying a patient’s care plan, as needed. Patient benefits of this very small monitoring device include prompt care and avoiding potential hospitalization.
The CardioMEMS sensor is implanted in the pulmonary artery during a minimally invasive catheterization procedure at the hospital. A permanent implant, the sensor is about the size of a small paperclip.
Using an external electronic unit, the patient can take a daily painless pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) reading from the device. A PAP is not information picked up, for example, during a physical exam or by checking patient weight or blood pressure. The PAP reading is then sent wirelessly to a secure website and reviewed by the hospital’s congestive heart failure disease management team. This team is composed of physicians, nurses and pharmacists. As needed, the team consults with a patient’s cardiologist as to any changes advised in caring for the patient.
The Cardiomyopathy Program provides comprehensive diagnostics, consultation and advanced treatment for individuals with hypertrophic, arrhythmogenic (resulting from an irregular heart rhythm), or dilated cardiomyopathy and any other form of inherited disease of the heart muscle. Our patients and their families are cared for by cardiologists and geneticists specially trained in inherited heart disease.
Medical and surgical treatment options include:
Cardiac Rehabilitation for Patients Living with Heart Failure
Heart transplantation has been performed at Yale New Haven Hospital for more than 35 years. Our experience in achieving excellent survival outcomes after transplantation offers hope to patients. The success of our heart transplant program has been maintained by a multidisciplinary team of experts who have earned acclaim for their dedicated care of transplant patients.
For patients with advanced congestive heart failure who are no longer responding to medications, a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) may be a treatment option. This surgically implanted pump is designed to circulate blood throughout the body, taking over much of the work of the patient’s own heart.
An LVAD may be used as a bridge to heart transplant, or as a primary treatment, known as destination therapy, for advanced heart failure patients not eligible for heart transplantation. This means that some patients will live with an LVAD for a number of years before undergoing heart transplantation, while others live with the LVAD for the rest of their lives. Clinical trials have demonstrated that LVADs extend and significantly improve a patient’s quality of life.
The Heart and Vascular Center at Yale New Haven Hospital is one of the most experienced LVAD centers in the Northeastern United States, with cardiothoracic surgeons and advanced heart failure cardiologists on staff with numerous years of experience in the implantation and long-term care of patients with LVADs. Our LVAD patients are also cared for by a multidisciplinary team of expert nursing and support staff. Given the complexity of the device, the LVAD team often becomes a primary medical resource for patients.
Yale New Haven Hospital is certified by The Joint Commission, the nation’s predominant standards-setting and accrediting body in health care, to implant left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) into patients with end-stage heart failure.
For more information on LVAD therapy, please call our advanced heart failure team at 203-785-7191. Early referrals and evaluations are recommended to give patients the best chance for success.
The Transitional Care Center (TCC) offers comprehensive outpatient care to patients with heart failure, especially those who have been hospitalized or who are at risk of re-admission.
Our care team includes a cardiologist with expertise in heart failure management, nurse practitioners, heart failure nurses, researchers and social workers. They work closely with our advanced heart failure service to ensure patients have access to the most current treatments.
At the TCC, patients receive:
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Yale New Haven Health is proud to be affiliated with the prestigious Yale University and its highly ranked Yale School of Medicine.
