Surgical alternatives for the palliation of heart failure: a prospectus.

Background: Congestive heart failure (CHF) is the leading cause of hospital admissions in the United States.
Methods and Results: CHF has a variety of palliative options for treatment and 1 curative one: cardiac transplantation. Palliative medical therapies are often limited in effectiveness by progression of the disease or patient intolerance. Because of limited donor availability, alternative surgical strategies are now being relied on for palliation of patients in end-stage CHF.
Conclusion: In this manuscript, we review the principles, outcomes, and practices of some of these surgical strategies often used in the palliation of end-stage CHF.