title: Valve pathology in heart failure: which valves can be fixed?
abstract: Heart transplantation has evolved to become the gold standard treatment for patients who have symptoms of severe congestive heart failure associated with end-stage heart disease. From an epidemiologic perspective, this treatment is "trivial" because less than 2800 patients in the United States are offered transplantation because of limitations of age, comorbid conditions, and donor availability. New surgical strategies to manage patients who have severe end-stage heart disease have therefore evolved to cope with the donor shortage in heart transplantation and have included high-risk coronary artery revascularization, cardiomyoplasty, and high-risk valvular repair or replacement.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48103, USA.
authors.forename: Martinus T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Spoor
authors.forename: Steven F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Bolling
mesh_terms: D006333:Heart Failure / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006349:Heart Valve Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006350:Heart Valve Prosthesis; D019918:Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation / Q000379:methods; D006353:Heart-Assist Devices; D006801:Humans; D009204:Myocardial Revascularization / Q000379:methods; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016019:Survival Analysis