Surgical therapies for heart failure.

A variety of invasive procedures have been utilized to reduce the burden on the left ventricle in order to slow or reverse the progressive changes of structural remodeling. These include mitral valve repair, left ventricular assist devices, left ventricular chamber reduction surgery, endovascular patchplasty, dynamic cardiomyoplasty, and a variety of prosthetic implants designed to inhibit remodeling either by constraining chamber enlargement or reducing wall stress to inhibit further growth. Resynchronization therapy also may favorably affect remodeling. The potential of these procedures to slow the progression of heart failure needs to be confirmed in prospective studies.