What Are We Talking About When We Talk About Palliative Care in Heart Failure?

Abstract

Background: Heart failure is a chronic, complex and progressive disease, with high morbidity and mortality, and growing prevalence. Despite advances in therapeutic strategies to improve survival and reduce hospitalizations, heart failure still generates a negative impact on the patients’ quality of life, making it necessary to develop health policies based not only on their physical but also on their psychosocial integrity. Palliative care refers to specialized, interdisciplinary care focused on improving the quality of life of patients who suffer a disease with elevated morbidity and mortality. The aim of this review is to assess the impact of the implementation of palliative care in the multidisciplinary treatment of heart failure throughout all the stages of the disease, and to determine the feasibility of its application in clinical practice.