title: [Therapy of heart failure. General practice references for individual treatment].
abstract: Cardiac insufficiency is today the most common reason for hospitalizing patients older than 65 years, and is associated with considerable costs for the health care system. The economic consequences (drug costs, hospitalization and costs of early retirement) necessitate close cooperation between family doctor and cardiologist if a rational (evidence based medicine) and cost-optimized treatment is to be achieved. The implementation of the current therapeutic concepts and guidelines issued by the specialist societies has so far been inadequate, in particular due to a misguided approach to budgeting, and the pressure of rising costs. Few diseases are as accessible to a differentiated drug treatment as chronic heart failure. Numerous studies have shown that an optimally adapted and adequately dosed treatment with ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, diuretics, aldosterone antagonists and digitalis is capable, not only of lowering the mortality rate, but also of achieving a significant reduction in morbidity (improved quality of life, shorter hospitalization). The treatment of the chronic forms of cardiac insufficiency is a domain of ambulatory patient care that, with an eye to the multimorbidity of the elderly, requires individually adapted pharmacotherapy.
authors.affiliation: fgoss@t-online.de
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Goss
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010348:Patient Care Team; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D002317:Cardiovascular Agents
vernacular_title: Therapie der Herzinsuffizienz. Praxistipps für eine individuelle Behandlung.