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Heart Failure
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Summary
What is heart failure?
Heart failure means that your heart can't pump enough oxygen-rich blood to meet your body's needs. Heart failure doesn't mean that your heart has stopped or is about to stop beating.
But without enough blood flow, your organs may not work well, which can cause serious problems.
Heart failure can affect one or both sides of your heart:
- With right-sided heart failure, your heart is too weak to pump enough blood to your lungs to get oxygen.
- With left-sided heart failure, your heart can't pump enough oxygen-rich blood out to your body.
This happens when the left side of your heart becomes either:
- Too weak to pump enough blood.
- Too thick or stiff to relax and fill with enough blood.
Left-sided heart failure is more common than right-sided heart failure.
What causes heart failure?
Heart failure can start suddenly after a medical condition or injury damages your heart muscle.
But in most cases, heart failure develops slowly from long-term medical conditions.
Conditions that can cause heart failure inclu
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