Congestive heart failure (CHF) complicates the course of a significant proportion of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). In the ICU, CHF may present as a manifestation of newly diagnosed cardiac disease or as an exacerbation of underlying heart disease, as a result of fluid overload or stress accompanying acute illness, surgery, or trauma. This review highlights recent advances in management of CHF. Most of the data on therapy is from randomized trials of mild to moderate heart failure in the outpatient setting and must be extrapolated to hospitalized patients and to those with advanced disease. There have been surprisingly few studies of the prevalence, causes, and treatment of CHF in the ICU setting.
Read More: http://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/ajrccm.165.1.2102075