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Success
with Heart Failure: Help and Hope for Those with Congestive Heart
Failure. 3rd edition. by Marc Silver, MD |
pdf >>
Review
by Vincent
J Felitti, MD
Cambridge:
Perseus Publishing; 2002
ISBN 0-7382-0600-8. 265 p. $20.
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Transmitting
useful medical information to patients is acknowledged as important
for gaining their cooperation with treatment. Information transfer is
also acknowledged as difficult: Typically, the material to be conveyed
is foreign to the patient-recipient, whose situation is frightening;
and most physicians are less skilled at information transfer than are
advertising copywriters, whose stock-in-trade is using words to elicit
intended responses and behaviors to an information-filled message.
Dr Marc
Silver has written a book that is helpful for improving this situation
for clinicians and patients discussing a diagnosis of congestive heart
failure. The book is written in informal language that will be readily
understood by any patients who want to improve their condition and are
not emotionally blocked from doing so (eg, by depression or denial).
Success with Heart Failure starts with a well-written anatomy
lesson that describes systolic and diastolic heart failure more simply
and clearly than any source I have seen, and this description is followed
by an interesting discussion of how heart failure develops. Woven into
these descriptions is a preventive thread that helps translate information
into action; but the simplicity of the writing style does not prevent
Dr Silver from helpfully discussing sophisticated details like the role
of b-naturetic peptide levels or the clinical significance of the ejection
fraction and how it is measured.
A chapter
titled "How Attitude and Emotion Affect Heart Failure" includes
an excellent section on sexual dysfunction in congestive heart failure
and how this dysfunction can fuel hopelessness and depression. A subsequent
chapter explains how various foods and drugs affect absorption or excretion
of cardiac medications. The functions, interactions, and side effects
of these medications are well thought out and are described clearly
and usefully. The section on treatment concludes with a chapter on heart
transplantation and various mechanical assistive devices. Perhaps best
of all is the chapter "Food and Heart Failure": I have never
before seen such a well-written, interesting discussion of the physiologic
role of sodium in cardiac health and how to translate this information
into healthful behaviors--shopping right, cooking right, eating right,
and recording body weight every day.
In conclusion,
Success with Heart Failure gives voice to an excellent concept:
that patients must understand their health status and how to participate
meaningfully in treatment. The book is clearly, practically, and interestingly
written; positive and encouraging, it recommends related books and reliable
Web sites. Physicians who recommend the book to patients and their families
are likely to improve control of congestive heart failure and generate
more satisfaction among patients and their families. Although the book
could use more careful editing, Success with Heart Failure does
an important job well and currently has little competition. Recommending
the book to patients with congestive heart failure would be a sensible
choice for clinicians.
