Authors

• Ivana Matoš — University of Applied Health Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0001-6099-0745
• Sonja Kalauz — University of Applied Health Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia — ORCID: 0000-0003-1778-6663

Keywords

cardiovascular disease, heart failure, mechanical heart

DOI

Full Text

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading public health problem. Available data from the World Health Organization from 2016 for the year of 2012 shows the increase in mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Only in 2012, 17.5 million people worldwide died from cardiovascular diseases. Latest report from the Croatian Institute of Public Health shows that mortality the leading cause of mortality are cardiovascular diseases with 47.43% of the total population died in 2014. (1) Heart failure is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world. Choices of treatment are medication therapy, surgery and heart transplantation. Left ventricular assist device is a mechanical circulatory support for the left ventricle. Right ventricular assist device is mechanical circulatory support for the right ventricle. Biventricular assist device is used in the treatment of double-sided cardiac decompensation. Also, for the mutual treatment both-sided heart failure, there is temporarily totally artificial heart - TAH. Mechanical heart has a role of bypass until heart transplantation, as heart muscle recovery or as ultimate choice of therapy. (2) Nursing care of patients with mechanical heart is a very complex part of nursing. Nurses who care of patients with mechanical heart should have completed additional training and certification program, for example, program SynCardia TAH-t, which confirms that the acquired competencies and level of knowledge for care of this group of patients. Care of patients with mechanical heart requires continuous education of nurses, following the latest data, results of research and application of methods, holistic approach and professional collaboration with team members. Regular assessment, control monitoring and recording the value of vital signs, recognizing early signs of complications are the main tasks of nurses. Very important is the knowledge of the models and the method of operation of devices for mechanical circulatory support, treatment of established protocols for the proceedings. Nursing interventions include constant monitoring of the health status of the patient and the response to the application of appropriate therapy, management of nursing documentation and reporting doctors about the procedures.

Literature

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2. Poturić M. Područje sestrinske odgovornosti u skrbi za bolesnike na mehaničkoj cirkulacijskoj potpori [diplomski rad]. Zagreb: Medicinski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu; 2015. Available at: (20.9.2016). https://repozitorij.mef.unizg.hr/islandora/object/mef:699/datastream/PDF/download