Question about heart failure

nicenurse911121 · Apr 23, 2006

From my understanding of heart failure, there is diastolic and systolic dysfunction primarily, however, additional classifications include, right or left sided heart failure, biventricular failure, forward or backward failure, high and low output failure, and acute or chronic failure. Hope this helps a little: Left sided:LV cardiac output

Hello everyone!

New grad here (passed NCLEX - no job yet)

I've been reading a critical care book and read about the 4 categories of heart failure. Can anyone please explain to me the difference between the 2 categories of left sided heart failure and systolic dysfunction?

They appear to be very similar to me.....what distinguishes one from the other?

Any input is greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

:balloons:

Dinith88 · Apr 23, 2006

From my understanding of heart failure, there is diastolic and systolic dysfunction primarily, however, additional classifications include, right or left sided heart failure, biventricular failure, forward or backward failure, high and low output failure, and acute or chronic failure. Hope this helps a little:. THE JOB WILL COME

Holy Heart Failure!

Medic2rn, i 'think' the answer to your question is this: 'Systolic' Heart Failure happens when the Left Venrticle is failing to pump (for whatever reasons) and is directly related to cardiac-muscle strength (when you see low ejection fractions, think systolic failure). 'Diastolic' heart failure is when your left ventricle is unable to 'relax'/becomes 'stiff', and fails to fill with adequate blood volume. (can back-up into lungs quickly 'flash pulmonary edema') A patient can have a perfectly normal ejection fraction and still suffer from diastolic heart failure. I think.

Medic2RN, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Apr 28, 2006

Thank you both for your input. I'm finding that the more I learn ~ the less I know! Appreciate it!!

:balloons: