Heart Failure Treatment

Part of our Sentara Advanced Heart Failure Center, our Pulmonary Hypertension Association-certified Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension Clinic guides patients facing high blood pressure in their lungs. The condition can lead to heart failure. Our medical experts from several specialties team up with you to deliver quality care and treatments so you can breathe more easily.

We offer rapid response to all hospitals in southeastern Virginia, northeastern North Carolina and the Virginia Eastern Shore to treat critically ill patients for shock. Shock, which can progress quickly, occurs when a person's body cannot pump a sufficient supply of blood.

A single phone call brings together specialists in cardiology, intensive care and cardiothoracic surgery. Patients can be transported directly to the most appropriate site for rapid and aggressive care. Our services for shock may include Impella (an implantable device restoring blood flow) and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation ECMO.

CardioMEMs and HeartLogic are heart monitoring systems. They detect problems before they are serious and can help avoid hospitalization by allowing your doctors to make changes in your treatment as needed.

ECMO offers short-term heart support for severe heart failure. The machine pumps and oxygenates blood outside of your body. This process gives your heart and lungs a rest.

We offer the latest left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) to help your failing heart pump blood. We may recommend an LVAD if you have end-stage heart failure.

LVADs are mechanical pumps that we implant into your chest. The battery-operated device assists the main pumping chamber of your heart and supports your heart in pumping blood throughout your body.

Depending on your health, an LVAD may:

• Provide critical support until a donor heart is available. You may hear the LVAD called bridge-to-transplant therapy in this case.
• Support the heart long-term if you are not a candidate for a heart transplant or you do not wish to have one. Under this circumstance, we call the LVAD a destination therapy.

During a heart transplant, your heart surgeon replaces your heart with a heart from a donor. We were the first healthcare system in Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina to perform heart transplants.

Find out more about heart transplants.

Understanding your current health and potential concerns allows you to make the best healthcare decisions. At Sentara, we can help you with genetic testing. When appropriate, we offer genetic testing that can identify a hereditary (passed down from a close relative) possibility for certain conditions. Before and after the testing, we also assist you with genetic counseling. Our counselors explain your testing process, your results and your care options.

Our heart experts and oncologists routinely participate in research and clinical trials. Please learn more at Sentara Health Research Center.

Vascular Care and Surgery

Call 1-800-SENTARA (1-800-736-8272) to learn more.