Palliative care in heart failure

Introduction: Heart failure is a prevalent clinical syndrome with high morbidity and mortality Heart failure; rates. Palliative care has an important role in symptomatic control. This study was designed to Symptom characterize the population referred to a palliative care unit and to identify those who benefit management from early and regular intervention. Aims: To characterize heart failure patients referred to a Palliative Care Team and identify those who would benefit from a regular intervention. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of all the heart failure patients referred to our palliative care team between January 2015 and December 2017. Results: A total of 54 patients were included with a mean age of 80 years. The mean score on the Palliative Performance Scale was 57. The median duration of disease was 46 months, 61.1% of patients were in NYHA class III, 57.4% had ejection fraction >40%, and 51.9% had ischemic cardiomyopathy. Most patients (94.4%) were referred during hospitalization; 60.8% were discharged, half with home-based assistance. Mortality one month after referral was 53.7%, and 83.3% after six months. We found no variables predictive of mortality within a month of referral. Conclusions: This study contributes to the characterization of the heart failure population referred to palliative care. No clinical sign was predictive of one-month mortality, but the high mortality rate shows that patients are referred in advanced stages of the disease or frailty. (C) 2022 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U.