Heart Failure is a condition when our heart is not able to pump blood to meet the adequate demand of the body and its organs. Heart being a pump of body is expected to beat regularly and pump blood into lungs (right side of heart) and rest of the body (left side of heart) and anything above 60% is normal! Regardless of the cause which can be any ailment of the heart from coronary artery disease to rheumatic heart disease or infections it is the advance manifestation in form of heart failure.
Heart Failure can be acute (developing over days) or chronic (developing over months to years). HF can also be categorised into mild, moderate & severe depending upon the severity! Treatment depends on the cause, acuteness & severity of HF as in earth stages treating the primary pathology can suffice like if ineffective treating the infection, coronary artery revascularization or timely bypass or angioplasty. In severe cases treatment of primary pathology only does not suffice and heart failure treatment has to be added. Initially it can be treated with medication but in later stages patients may require circulatory support in the for of ECMO or Centrimag. But these measures can be offered for limited period of time like days to weeks and sometimes for 1 month or two.
Beyond that there comes role of Left Ventricular Assist Device, Total Artificial Heart (JARVIK) & Heart Transplant. Heart Transplant is the best and desirable option but due to availability of donor being a limiting factor earlier two options will always be there and USFDA has approved them for destination therapy. Heart Transplant is possible when a dead donors family in principle approves for heart harvestation and transplanted into a recipients chest. Post transplant patient has to be on immunosuppressive therapy to prevent rejection of the graft.