How To Effectively Treat Myocarditis

Ventricular Assist Devices

Ventricular assist devices are mechanical pump devices that can be implanted in a patient to help the heart pump blood from the ventricles to the rest of the body. One of these devices can be used to assist the left ventricle, right ventricle, or both ventricles with their pumping function. A ventricular assist device may be a required treatment method for patients who have myocarditis that has caused acute heart failure. Some cases of myocarditis can result in heart failure that will correct itself when the heart muscle is healed, and other myocarditis cases can result in permanent heart damage. Myocarditis often results in the widespread damage and destruction of cardiomyocytes or cardiac muscle cells. Because the body is able to regenerate and repair cardiac muscle cells, the weakness of the heart that occurs with myocarditis that requires a ventricular assist device may only be temporary. In severe cases of myocarditis, the heart muscle can become irreversibly compromised from the infection causing organism itself, the immune system's response, or a combination of both. Irreversible heart tissue damage from myocarditis may cause a patient to require a heart transplant. In such cases, a ventricular assist device is used to keep the patient alive while they wait for a new heart from a donor. In other cases, a ventricular assist device is used so a patient can become strong enough to undergo a heart transplant.

Keep reading to reveal more treatments for myocarditis now.