If you suffered from heart failure (HF) as recently as just two decades ago, treatment would consist solely of a drug therapy regimen of diuretics along with diet and lifestyle changes. Open-heart surgery, including valve repair or replacement and bypass, was also available to improve the heart's function and stave off HF. The gold standard treatment for end-stage HF was heart transplantation, but this option was and is only available to about 3,000 US patients each year.
Over the last 20 years, the treatment paradigm has shifted significantly to a mechanical device-based approach to slow the progression...