Team-Based Care Is The Key To Successful Care Of Pregnant Women with Heart Failure

The key to the survival of pregnant women with heart failure is a multidisciplinary team-based approach, involving cardiac and maternal/fetal/newborn specialists to team up to save the mom and baby.

Heart failure in pregnant women possesses serious health risks to both the infant and mother. But, what could be possibly done to protect the mother and the growing infant? With a multi-disciplinary team-based approach involving cardiac and maternal/fetal/newborn specialists, who usually do not work together, to favorably team up to save both the mom and the baby, claim many clinicians.//

In a case study presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in New Orleans on March 16, clinicians from the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute demonstrated how multiple medical teams across several different disciplines saved the life of both the mother and child after she was transferred from a smaller, local hospital.

Congestive Heart Failure (Congestive Cardiac Failure) Current Management
Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a condition in which the heart fails to work adequately as a pump that can deliver oxygen rich blood to the body.

‘Integrated efforts by doctors from multi-disciplines have helped save the critically ill mother and the growing fetus.’

"This case represents an enormous team effort and shows what it takes to see a critically-ill patient through the course of a unique and very challenging illness," said Kismet Rasmusson, DNP, FNP, of the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute.

The 36-year-old patient was 22 weeks pregnant when she came to an Intermountain hospital with shortness of breath, but no prior history of heart disease.

When doctors realized her heart was failing -- either from idiopathic cardiomyopathy with an unknown cause, or pregnancy associated cardiomyopathy -- she was transferred to the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute.

Cardiac Pacemaker for Abnormal Heart Rhythms – Types, Advantages & Risks
A pacemaker stimulates the heart with electrical signals when it detects arrhythmias of the heart. Pacemakers are classified based on the number of lead electrodes used and the type of pacing involved.

Cardiomyopathy leads to heart failure - a disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body. About 6.2 million Americans have some type of heart failure, including women and men. According to a recent study in JAMA, maternal deaths in the US are high, with 10% of them related to cardiomyopathy, yet 60% of these are preventable with optimal treatments and coordinating care. That's exactly what this team had to offer this patient.

For seven weeks, the mother's care was managed by multiple teams, including heart failure cardiologists with the OB team. To develop a full plan of care, the rest of the team was assembled that included critical care physicians, interventional cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, specialized nurses, cath lab and surgical staff, the staffs of Intermountain Medical Center's Thoracic ICU and Newborn ICU, pharmacists, advanced practice clinicians, and cardiovascular nurses. Social workers also supported both the patient and her spouse.

Cardiogenic Shock - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment & Prevention
Cardiogenic shock is defined as reduced cardiac output due to inability of the heart to pump adequate blood in the presence of a normal blood volume.

"We had two goals -- first to let the baby mature enough so the baby would have a better outcome, and second to keep the mom as stable as we could with her terribly weak heart muscle," said Rasmusson.

The baby was delivered at 29 weeks - about 11 weeks early. The team knew the delivery was risky and required advanced planning ahead of time. They held two meetings before the delivery date to discuss the sequence of events and roles of all team members, which included mechanically-supporting the mother's heart during a cesarean-section surgery in the cardiac catheterization lab.

CoQ10 - How Does this Coenzyme Protect Your Body?
Vitamin-like CoQ10 helps generate energy for the cells to function at their optimum level. Secondary to its role in energy production, CoQ10 also functions as a potent antioxidant.

The sequence of the complicated delivery included intubation, pulmonary artery catheter insertion, temporary mechanical support insertion, cesarean-section delivery, sending the baby to the newborn intensive care unit with her father, and post-delivery intensive care monitoring.

After delivery, the mother's heart remained very weak, so she had a left ventricle assist device (LVAD) implanted, which provided more durable mechanical support for her heart and served as a bridge to a heart transplant, which she received eight months after delivery.

The baby is now nearly five years old, and both the baby and mother are doing well, Rasmusson said.

"The patient in this unique case had the best possible outcome we all hoped for," she added. "Only through the experts within our different teams, having the depth of their skill and experience, and our commitment to delivering the best care could this be possible for women as in this case and for others like her."

Source-Eurekalert