Home ยป What Is Heart Failure?

How Serious Is Heart Failure?

Edited by Guy Slowik MD FRCS. Last updated on June 28th 2011

This depends on how severe the heart failure is.

If the heart failure is mild, it may not significantly affect a person's lifestyle and day-to-day living.

On the other hand, severe heart failure can affect a person's every move and can be fatal.

Thus there is a "spectrum" of severity from very mild heart failure to severe heart failure.

Treatment is essential in all types of heart failure, which can help significantly, and in most non-severe cases can allow the person to enjoy a normal and full life. Medication can also significantly help those suffering with severe heart failure to improve their day-to-day living and live longer.

Need To Know:

Physicians are able to determine exactly how severe heart failure is by calculating what is called the ejection fraction. This is the amount of blood, expressed as a percentage, pumped out of the heart with each heartbeat.

Normally the ejection fraction is 50-75%.

Heart failure can be "left-sided", due to failure of the pumping action of the left side of the heart, or "right-sided", due to failure of the pumping action of the right side of the heart (which is much less common).

  • In left-sided heart failure, the ejection fraction falls below 40%, and in severe heart failure, can drop to below 10%.
  • In right-sided heart failure the ejection fraction may be normal or even high due to the backup of blood entering the heart.
  • Left-sided heart failure is much more common than right-sided heart failure and may lead to right-sided heart failure.