Ency. home > Disease > R > Right-sided heart failure

Right-sided heart failure    See images

Overview | Symptoms | Treatment | Prevention

Alternative names:

Congestive heart failure - right

Definition:

A disorder in which the right side of the heart loses its ability to pump blood efficiently. It is often a complication of other disorders.

Causes and Risks

Heart failure may affect the right side, left side, or both sides of the heart. As the pumping action is lost on the right side of the heart, blood may back up into other areas of the body including the liver, gastrointestinal tract, and extremities. The heart may be unable to pump blood efficiently to the lungs.

Causes of right-sided heart failure include left-sided heart failure and chronic lung diseases such as emphysema. Other causes include congenital heart disease, heart-valve disease, and cardiomyopathy. When an individual is predisposed to heart failure, anything that imposes additional demands on the heart may cause acute symptoms. These factors include increased activity, increased intake of fluids or salt, high fever or complicated infections, anemia, irregular heartbeats (arrhythmias), hyperthyroidism, kidney disease, medications that affect contraction of the heart muscle (such as beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers), and stopping some medications (diuretics, digoxin, ACE inhibitors). Other risk factors include smoking, obesity, and excess alcohol consumption.

Right-sided heart failure occurs in approximately 5 out of 100 people.

Ency. home > Disease > R > Right-sided heart failure

[an error occurred while processing this directive]