Amount Of Health Care Resources Research Articles

Factors associated with sanitary conditions of food and drinking establishments in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: cross-sectional study.

IntroductionFood borne illness has been a global challenge and it persisted as a major public health problem, which consumes significant amounts of health care resources, particularly in the developing world. Poor sanitary conditions of food and drinking establishments are the major cause for the occurrence of food borne illness. This study assessed sanitary conditions of food and drinking establishments in Arada sub-city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.MethodsA cross-sectional study design with stratified simple random sampling technique was used. Data were collected from 587 licensed food and drinking establishments and their managers, using interviewer administered questionnaire and observation checklist. The data were entered using Epi info version 3.5.3 and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Binary and Multi-variable logistic regression analyses were conducted.ResultsThe study showed 58.8% of food and drinking establishments were under poor sanitary conditions; only 16.5% of the establishments had a proper liquid waste disposal facility, and only 7.2% had a suitable dish washing facility. Availability of trained managers on hygiene and sanitation (AOR = 2.56, 95% CI: 1.66-3.94); inspection from the respective body (AOR = 4.41, 95% CI: 2.9-6.8) and the distance between kitchen and toilet (AOR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.1-3.0) were associated factors which affected sanitary conditions.ConclusionA majority of the establishments had poor sanitary conditions; where an absence of sanitary facilities for waste management was major cause. Regulatory bodies should conduct regular inspection on the establishments to promote and ensure proper hygiene and sanitation practices.

Use of Sleep Compliance Monitoring to Improve Patient Adherence

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by cessation of breathing during sleep with intermittent hypoxemia and sleep fragmentation. Comorbidities associated with OSA include: coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, stroke, hypertension, and Type II diabetes. In addition to high public safety costs associated with untreated OSA. OSA patients use a much higher and disproportionate amount of healthcare resources. Untreated OSA patients use twice the healthcare resources of treated patients. These facts notwithstanding, the current model for delivery of care to OSA patients is noticeably deficient in long term clinical management of patients. 3B Medical proposes a robust program of patient clinical management using web-based telemedicine and automated algorithms to improve outcomes and lower costs

Urologic Diseases in Korean Military Population: a 6-year Epidemiological Review of Medical Records.

We sought to describe the incidence rate of the urologic disease in the Korean military by reviewing diagnoses made in active duty soldiers from 2008 to 2013. A total of 72,248 first visits were generated in the Defense Medical Statistics Information System (DMSIS) with its gradually increasing trend over 6 years. A sharp increase of first visit was observed after implementation of the regular health check-up for all conscripted soldiers since 2013. Urolithiasis, prostatitis, epididymoorchitis, urethritis, and varicocele were prevalent. Prostatitis was the highest diagnosis made in the outpatient service, while varicocele was ranked the highest in the inpatient service. The incidence rates of urologic disease varied from 12.3 to 34.2 cases per 1,000 person-years. The urologic disease in conscripted men showed different distribution when we separated the population into conscripted and professional soldiers. Epididymoorchitis was the highest disease followed by urolithiasis, dysuresia, and balanoposthitis in 2013. This study underscores that the urologic disease has spent significant amount of health care resources in the Korean military. This calls for further study to find any significant difference and contributing factors of the urologic disease in the military and the civilian population.

How Avoidable are Hospitalizations for Children With Medical Complexity? Understanding Parent Perspectives

ObjectiveChildren with medical complexity (CMC) are a small group that utilizes large amounts of health care resources. Although parents are the primary healthcare decision-makers for their children, little is known from their perspective about why CMC are hospitalized. We sought to understand what parents think about factors leading to hospitalization and whether any recent hospitalizations might have been avoidable. MethodsWe conducted qualitative, semistructured interviews with 35 parents of hospitalized CMC who receive care in the Pediatric Medical Home Program, a complex care program at University of California, Los Angeles. Interviews were conducted in English and in Spanish, audio-recorded, transcribed and translated, then coded in ATLAS.ti (Scientific Software Development Gmbh, Berlin, Germany) for qualitative analysis. We sorted qualitative codes into groups with shared concepts, to generate emergent themes. ResultsParents described their experiences leading up to their children's hospitalization, but no one suggested that the hospitalization was potentially avoidable. Most parents perceived their children as having higher susceptibility because of underlying conditions, perceived the symptoms they observed as high-risk, and described seeking emergent care only when they no longer were comfortable at home. Decisions about where to seek care were influenced by health care system factors such as accessibility and continuity of care. Most parents expressed a desire to learn more about their children's conditions and how best to care for them at home. ConclusionsParents of CMC believe that hospitalizations are largely unavoidable because of higher susceptibility and higher risk. Increasing parents' self-efficacy in caring for children at home might influence their decisions to seek emergent care.

National equity of health resource allocation in China: data from 2009 to 2013.

BackgroundThe inequitable allocation of health resources is a worldwide problem, and it is also one of the obstacles facing for health services utilization in China. A new round of health care reform which contains the important aspect of improving the equity in health resource allocation was released by Chinese government in 2009. The aim of this study is to understand the changes of equity in health resource allocation from 2009 to 2013, and make a further inquiry of the main factors which influence the equity conditions in China.MethodsData resources are the China Health Statistics Yearbook (2014) and the China Statistical Yearbook (2014). Four indicators were chosen to measure the trends in equity of health resource allocation. Data were disaggregated by three geographical regions: west, central, and east. Theil index was used to calculate the degree of unfairness.ResultsThe total amount of health care resources in China had been increasing in recent years. However, the per 10, 000 km2 number of health resources showed a huge gap in different regions, and per 10, 000 capita health resources ownership showed a relatively small disparities at the same time. The index of health resources showed an overall downward trend, in which health financial investment the most unfair from 2009 to 2012 and the number of health institutions the most unfair in 2013. The equity of health resources allocation in eastern regions was the worst except for the aspect of health technical personnel allocation. The regional contribution rates were lower than that of the inter-regional contribution rates which were all beyond 60 %.ConclusionThe equity of health resource allocation improved gradually from 2009 to 2013. However, the internal differences within the eastern region still have a huge impact on the overall equity in health resource allocation. The tough issues of inequitable in health resource allocation should be resolved by comprehensive measures from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Late single-center outcome of the Talent Abdominal Stent Graft after a decade of follow-up

Lifelong yearly surveillance is advised after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) for abdominal aortic aneurysms. This follow-up requires a substantial amount of health care resources. The aim of this paper was to assess the occurrence of stentgraft-related complications and secondary interventions during a minimum 10-year follow-up after elective EVAR. Patients who were treated in a high-volume endovascular center in The Netherlands with the Talent infrarenal stent graft (Medtronic Vascular, Santa Rosa, Calif) between June 1999 and February 2005 were included. Patients with previous aortic surgery or emergency interventions were excluded. Our primary outcome was clinical success up to 10years. Secondary end points were technical success and survival. A total of 149 patients were included; 91.9% were male. The mean age was 70.2± 7.8years. A stent graft was implanted in 98% of patients; technical success was achieved in 89.9%. Clinical success after 30days, 1year, 5years, and 10years was 81.1%, 74.3%, 70.3%, and 65.5%, respectively. In 30 patients (20.7%), a secondary intervention was required; 80.0% of first secondary interventions occurred within the first 5years. Six late conversions were necessary because of stent graft infection (2), migration (2), or persisting endoleak (2). The 5- and 10-year overall survival rates were 55.2% and 38.6%, respectively. The risk of EVAR-related complication is highest in the first 5years. Consequently, the main focus should beon that period; further follow-up must not be neglected, as complications occur up to 10years after treatment.

What is effective care for varicose veins?

Varicose veins affect one-quarter to one-third of Western adult populations and consume an increasing amount of health care resources. Much of this increased utilization has been driven by the advent of minimally invasive technology including endovenous thermal ablation, foam sclerotherapy, and more recently mechanicochemical and cyanoacrylate glue ablation. This has largely been driven by patient and physician preferences in the absence of robust evidence that one therapy is truly superior to another. This partially arises from misunderstandings about appropriate outcomes measures and what truly constitutes effective treatment of varicose veins. Technical outcomes, such as saphenous closure rates, have frequently been used as surrogates for effective treatment but are poorly correlated with symptom improvement, quality of life, and risk of recurrence. Although there does appear to be a trend towards higher recurrence with ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy, the data are occasionally conflicting and there does not appear to be substantial differences between the various modalities. Similarly, there do not appear to be major differences in late quality of life measures between these treatment options. As long-term differences in recurrence and quality of life are small, overall cost effectiveness is driven primarily by initial treatment costs and ultrasound-guided foam sclerotherapy is the most cost-effective strategy in many models. However, there continues to be substantial uncertainty surrounding cost estimates and other factors of importance to the patient may ultimately drive treatment decisions. The benefits of some adjuncts to the treatment of axial superficial reflux, such as the concurrent versus staged management of tributary varicosities, remain ill-defined while that of others, such as routine post-procedural ultrasound surveillance and compression, need critical re-evaluation.

Cost trajectories for cancer patients.

Health care spending is known to be highly skewed, with a small subset of the population consuming a disproportionate amount of health care resources. Patients with cancer are high-cost users because of high incremental health care costs for treatment and the growing prevalence of cancer. The objectives of the present study included characterizing cancer-patient trajectories by cost, and identifying the patient and health system characteristics associated with high health system costs after cancer treatment. This retrospective cohort study identified Ontario adults newly diagnosed with cancer between 1 April 2009 and 30 September 2010. Costs of health care use before, during, and after cancer episodes were used to develop trajectories of care. Descriptive analyses examined differences between the trajectories in terms of clinical and health system characteristics, and a logistic regression approach identified predictors of being a high-cost user after a cancer episode. Ten trajectories were developed based on whether patients were high- or low-cost users before and after their cancer episode. The most common trajectory represented patients who were low-cost in the year before cancer, survived treatment, and continued to be low-cost in the year after cancer (31.4%); stage ii cancer of the male genital system was the most common diagnosis within that trajectory. Regression analyses identified increases in age and in multimorbidity and low continuity of care as the strongest predictors of high-cost status after cancer. Findings highlight an opportunity to proactively identify patients who might transition to high-cost status after cancer treatment and to remediate that transition.

Clinical management and associated costs for moderate and severe Alzheimer's disease in urban China: a Delphi panel study.

BackgroundHealthcare resource utilisation for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in China is not well understood. This Delphi panel study aimed to describe the clinical management pathways for moderate and severe AD patients in urban China and to define the amount and cost of healthcare resources used.MethodsA panel of 11 experts was recruited from urban China to participate in two rounds of preparatory interviews. In the first round, 9 physicians specialised in dementia gave a qualitative description of the clinical management of AD patients. In the second round, 2 hospital administrators were asked about the cost of AD management and care. Results from the interviews were discussed by the experts in a Delphi panel meeting, where consensus was reached on quantitative aspects of AD management, including the rate of healthcare resource utilisation, the respective unit costs and caregiving time.ResultsInterviewees reported that mild AD is under-recognised in China; most patients are diagnosed with moderate to severe AD. Loss of independence and agitation/aggression are the main drivers for healthcare resource utilisation and contribute to a heavier caregiver burden. It was estimated that 70 % moderate AD patients are independent/non-aggressive at the time of diagnosis, 15 % are independent/aggressive, 10 % are dependent/non-aggressive, and 5 % are dependent/aggressive. Dependent/aggressive AD patients are more likely to be hospitalised (70–90 %) than accepted in a nursing home (0–20 %), while the opposite is true for dependent/non-aggressive patients (5–35 % for hospitalisation vs. 80 % for nursing home). Independent AD patients require 1–3 hours/day of caregiver time, while dependent patients can require up to 12–15 hours/day. Experts agreed that AD complicates the management of age-related comorbidities, found in 70–80 % of all AD patients, increasing the frequency and cost of hospitalisation.ConclusionsThe Delphi panel approach was an efficient method of gathering data about the amount of healthcare resources used and associated costs for moderate and severe AD patients in urban China. The results of this study provide a useful source of information for decision makers to improve future healthcare policies and resource planning, as well as to perform economic evaluations of AD therapies.

Identifying homelessness using health information exchange data.

Homeless patients experience poor health outcomes and consume a disproportionate amount of health care resources compared with domiciled patients. There is increasing interest in the federal government in providing care coordination for homeless patients, which will require a systematic way of identifying these individuals. We analyzed address data from Healthix, a New York City-based health information exchange, to identify patterns that could indicate homelessness. Patients were categorized as likely to be homeless if they registered with the address of a hospital, homeless shelter, place of worship, or an address containing a keyword synonymous with "homelessness." We identified 78,460 out of 7,854,927 Healthix patients (1%) as likely to have been homeless over the study period of September 30, 2008 to July 19, 2013. We found that registration practices for these patients varied widely across sites. The use of health information exchange data enabled us to identify a large number of patients likely to be homeless and to observe the wide variation in registration practices for homeless patients within and across sites. Consideration of these results may suggest a way to improve the quality of record matching for homeless patients. Validation of these results is necessary to confirm the homeless status of identified individuals. Ultimately, creating a standardized and structured field to record a patient's housing status may be a preferable approach.

Frequent attendances to a London emergency department: a service improvement project embedding mental health into the team

Background A small number of patients who repeatedly attend emergency departments (EDs) utilise disproportionally large amounts of healthcare resources. It has been suggested in previous studies that ED attendances may be reduced and social and clinical outcomes improved by intervening with individual case management.Methods We identified a cohort of seven patients whom we selected for intensive case management. A team led by liaison psychiatry and emergency care clinicians reviewed these patients when they presented to the ED. A bio-psycho-social assessment provided diagnostic assessment and formulation, identifying the most appropriate care pathway and interventions for the patient, including social care input if necessary.Results Post intervention we saw a dramatic reduction in ED attendance for most of our patients. Our pilot study shows that in six of the seven cases the Frequent Attendances (FA) Programme has resulted in a significant decrease in the number of attendances to the ED (in the 12 months...

Asthma and COPD Overlap Syndrome (ACOS)

Abstract Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have traditionally been viewed as distinct clinical entities. Recently, however, much attention has been focused on patients with overlapping features of both asthma and COPD: those with asthma COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS). A significant proportion of patients who present with symptoms of a chronic airways disease have features of both asthma and COPD. Several diagnostic terms, most including the word “overlap”, have been applied to such patients, and the topic has been extensively reviewed. However, there is no generally agreed term or defining features for this category of chronic airflow limitation, although a definition based upon consensus has been published for overlap in patients with existing COPD. In spite of these uncertainties, there is broad agreement that patients with features of both asthma and COPD experience frequent exacerbations, have poor quality of life, a more rapid decline in lung function and high mortality, and consume a disproportionate amount of healthcare resources than asthma or COPD alone. ACOS accounts for approximately 15-25% of the obstructive airway diseases and patients experience worse outcomes compared to asthma or COPD alone. Patients with ACOS often have the combined risk factors of smoking and atopy, are generally younger than patients with COPD and experience acute exacerbations with higher frequency and greater severity than in COPD alone. Pharmacotherapeutic considerations require an integrated approach, first to identify the relevant clinical phenoltype( s), then to determine the best available therapy. The authors discuss the array of existing and emerging classes of drugs which patients with ACOS could benefit from and share their therapeutic approach. A consensus international definition of ACOS is needed to design prospective. Randomized clinical trials are necessary to evaluate specific influence of drug interventions on important outcomes such as lung function, acute exacerbations, quality of life and mortality.

Profile of fluticasone furoate/vilanterol dry powder inhaler combination therapy as a potential treatment for COPD

Currently, there is no cure for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The limited efficacy of current therapies for COPD indicates a pressing need to develop new treatments to prevent the progression of the disease, which consumes a significant amount of health care resources and is an important cause of mortality worldwide. Current national and international guidelines for the management of stable COPD patients recommend the use of inhaled long-acting bronchodilators, inhaled corticosteroids, and their combination for maintenance treatment of moderate to severe stable COPD. Once-daily fluticasone furoate/vilanterol dry powder inhaler combination therapy has recently been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency as a new regular treatment for patients with stable COPD. Fluticasone furoate/vilanterol dry powder inhaler combination therapy has been shown to be effective in many controlled clinical trials involving thousands of patients in the regular treatment of stable COPD. This is the first once-daily combination of ultra-long-acting inhaled β2-agonists and inhaled glucocorticoids that is available for the treatment of stable COPD and has great potential to improve compliance to long-term regular inhaled therapy and hence to improve the natural history and prognosis of COPD patients.

System Integration and Control of Finger Orthosis for Post Stroke Rehabilitation

Abstract Stroke is a major cause of long-term disability among adults in many countries. Post stroke rehabilitation consumes a huge amount of health care resources in terms of costs related to hospital and home assistance. Recently, robot-assisted rehabilitation has been introduced to support physiotherapists in providing high-intensity and repetitive rehabilitation sessions. It has been observed that robotics offers an objective and reliable tool to monitor patient's progress and to accurately assess their motor function. This paper presents a novel finger rehabilitation approach for acute paralyzed stroke survivors using a wearable device for hand motor function restoration. After analyzing four main working mechanisms for hand assistance and rehabilitation, i.e. pneumatic cylinders, artificial rubber muscles, linkage mechanism and cable-driven mechanism, a new device called Pneumatic Actuated Finger Exoskeleton (PAFEx) has been designed. The prototype development was carried out in four stages involving simulation of the assisted structure of the MCP joint and the PIP joint, algorithm development, design and fabrication of prototype as well as product function evaluation. Offering ease of use and affordability, the device has great potential to be deployed for individualized rehabilitation session for patients who have to undergo therapy in their home.

La enfermera familiar y comunitaria: referente del paciente crónico en la comunidad

It is estimated that the chronic, fragile and complex patient represents 5% of the general population, but uses up to 65% of the total amount of health care resources. Older people who are dependent, with chronic illnesses and comorbidities need professional care that promotes self-care and self-management of their illnesses. Thus, new strategies need to be considered to channel those professional care services to focus on this group. Nurse practicioners are professionals who could lead this change to improve the sustainability of the health care system, since they are in a position to respond in an effective way to the demands of patients with chronic illnesses, dependency or fragility. For the nurse working force to provide an efficient and cost-effective response to the health needs of chronically ill and disabled persons, an analysis needs to be made of the factors that restrict professional growth, as well as those nursing services where nurses do not take part in the decision making, as well as how to correct them. The lack of goals or quality care indicators, the measurement of the problem, the lack of patients assigned to a nurse practicioners, lack of training, the disparity of the profession in Spain, and the inability of the system to lead a self-sufficient care system project, should also be taken into consideration.

Patients with unexplained physical symptoms have poorer quality of life and higher costs than other patient groups: a cross-sectional study on burden

BackgroundTo determine whether healthcare resources are allocated fairly, it is helpful to have information on the quality of life (QoL) of patients with Unexplained Physical Symptoms (UPS) and on the costs associated with them, and on how these relate to corresponding data in other patient groups. As studies to date have been limited to specific patient populations with UPS, the objective of this study was to assess QoL and costs in a general sample of patients with UPS using generic measures.MethodsIn a cross-sectional study, 162 patients with UPS reported on their QoL, use of healthcare resources and lost productivity in paid and unpaid work. To assess QoL, the generic SF-36 questionnaire was used, from which multidimensional quality-of-life scores and a one-dimensional score (utility) using the SF-6D scorings algorithm were derived. To assess costs, the TiC-P questionnaire was used.ResultsPatients with UPS reported a poor QoL. Their QoL was mostly decreased by limitations in functioning due to physical health, and the least by limitations in functioning due to emotional problems. The median of utilities was 0.57, and the mean was 0.58 (SD = .09).The cost for the use of healthcare services was estimated to be €3,123 (SD = €2,952) per patient per year. This cost was enlarged by work-related costs: absence from work (absenteeism), lower on-the-job productivity (presenteeism), and paid substitution of domestic tasks. The resulting mean total cost was estimated to be €6,815 per patient per year.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that patients with UPS have a high burden of disease and use a considerable amount of healthcare resources. In comparison with other patient groups, the QoL values of patients with UPS were among the poorest and their costs were among the highest of all patient groups. The burden for both patients and society helps to justify the allocation of sufficient resources to effective treatment for patients with UPS.Trial registrationNederlands Trial Register, NTR1609

Impact of alternative approaches to assess outlying and influential observations on health care costs

The distributions of medical costs are often skewed to the right because small numbers of patients use large amounts of health care resources. Using data from a study of colon cancer costs, we show, by example, the impact and magnitude of outliers and influential observations on health care costs and compared the effects of statistical costing methods for addressing the disproportionate influence of outliers and influential observations. We used data from a retrospective cohort study of 3,842 elderly veterans with colon cancer who were enrolled in and used health care from, both the Department of Veterans Affairs and Medicare in 1999–2004. After calculating the average colon cancer episode cost and distribution for the full cohort, we used box-plot methods, Winsorization, DFBETAs, and Cook's distance to identify and assess or adjust the outlying and/or influential observations. The number of observations identified as outlying and/or influential ranged from 13 when the predicted DFBETA measurement was greater than 0.15 and the observation was a qualified box-plot outlier to 384 cases using the Winsorization method at the 5th and 95th percentiles. Average costs of colon cancer episodes using these methods were similar. The method of choice from the results of this particular analysis can be conditionally based on whether the purpose is to control only for influential observations or to simultaneously control for outliers and influential observations. Understanding how estimates could change with each approach is important in assessing the impact of a particular method on the results.

Cost and Health Care Utilization in ARDS—Different from Other Critical Illness?

Costs of care in the intensive care unit are a frequent target for concern in the current health care system. Utilization of critical care services in the United States is increasing and will continue to do so. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a common and important complication of critical illness. Patients with ARDS frequently have long hospitalizations and consume a significant amount of health care resources. Many patients are discharged with functional limitations and high susceptibility to new complications that require significant additional health care resources. There is increasing literature on the cost-effectiveness of the treatment of ARDS, and despite its high costs, treatment remains a cost-effective intervention by current societal standards. However, when ARDS leads to prolonged mechanical ventilation, treatment becomes less cost-effective. Current research seeks to find interventions that lead to reductions in duration of mechanical ventilation and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay. Limited reductions in ICU length of stay have benefits for the patient, but they do not lead to significant reductions in overall hospital costs. Early discharge to post-acute care facilities can reduce hospital costs but are unlikely to decrease costs for an entire episode of illness. Improved effectiveness of communication between clinicians and patients or their surrogates could help avoid costly interventions with poor expected outcomes.

Some thoughts on the continuing dilemma of angina pectoris

electrocardiographic abnormalities. 5 Many reports followed documenting ischaemia by different methods in such patients but, in contrast to ischaemia associated with obstructive CAD, left ventricular wall motion appeared to be preserved. This finding led to speculation about long-term outcomes of such patients. Indeed multiple early reports suggested that outcomes were similar to those of selected subjects without angina and obstructive CAD. Unfortunately, this conclusion was widely embraced and led to dismissal of such patients from subspecialty care and also from general medical care. During our attempts to identify reasons for higher ischaemic heart disease (IHD) event rates among women vs. men, it became clear that there was a strong bias against evaluation of women with chest pain and other findings suggesting IHD. The public message about this gender inequity then prompted referral of more women with these findings to coronary angiography. We began to see increasing numbers of such women who were not only disabled by persistent angina, but had serious adverse outcomes. These concerns led to the WISE study in 1996, and about two-thirds of the initial consecutive cohort of women with chest pain and other findings suggesting IHD were found to have no obstructive CAD: their adverse outcomes confirmed that this was not a benign syndrome, as initially believed. 2 Also important was the application of coronary artery reactivity testing for endothelial and microvascular function (Figure 1). Among women with normal coronary arteries and non-obstructive CAD, WISE study data showed that most had endothelial and/or microvascular dysfunction. The latter was defined by low coronary flow reserve and independently predicted adverse cardiovascular events (e.g. first occurrence of death, myocardial infarction, stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure) after 5.4 years followup. 3 These serious events are consistent with the cardiovascular disease continuum expected for a disorder involving the microvasculature. Furthermore, they consume a large amount of healthcare resources. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging provided superior resolution to evaluate perfusion, and these patients were found to have a relative failure of subendocardial perfusion to increase with adenosine, which could explain the absence of major changes in left ventricular wall motion. 6

Current status of mechanical circulatory support: a systematic review.

Heart failure is a major public health problem and its management requires a significant amount of health care resources. Even with administration of the best available medical treatment, the mortality associated with the disease remains high. As therapeutical strategies for heart failure have been refined, the number of patients suffering from the disease has expanded dramatically. Although heart transplantation still represents the gold standard therapeutical approach, the implantation of mechanical circulatory support devices (MCSDs) evolved to a well-established management for this disease. The limited applicability of heart transplantation caused by a shortage of donor organs and the concurrent expand of the patient population with end-stage heart failure led to a considerable utilization of MCSDs. This paper outlines the current status of mechanical circulatory support.