Palliative care in people with heart failure: A literature review

This study was conducted to investigate palliative care in people with heart failure. Background. Heart failure as a syndrome of cardiac dysfunction has a variety of pathophysiology. Progress in knowledge related to heart failure has led to improvement in survival, but the incidence and prevalence of the syndrome is incremental. Cure of the disease is rarely possible and as a chronic disease it can significantly affect the patient, family and health care system. Providing care for patients with heart failure is a complex phenomenon and as the disease progresses to the late stages, palliative care takes a larger part of the caring.

In this review study, scientific databases and search engines such as SID, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched for to find articles published from the beginning of 2000 to 2017. The keywords used for the search included heart failure, palliative care and their Persian equivalent. Papers in Persian and English that were available on the common theme of heart failure and palliative care were reviewed.

A total of 36 English and one Persian article were reviewed. The definitions of palliative care, views on palliative care, palliative care drugs, types of palliative care providers, palliative care models, palliative care delivery to family caregivers, and the future of palliative care were the topics covered in the reviewed articles.

Palliative care for people with heart failure should be considered in line with the treatment plan of these patients. Special attention should be payed to development of specialty palliative care and long-term planning for primary palliative care