An Effective Treatment for Heart Failure Caused by Valvular Heart Diseases: Thoracic Sympathetic Block

ABSTRACTBackground: The pilot study is designed to investigate the effect of continuous thoracic sympathetic block (TSB) on cardiac function, reconstruction, and hemodynamic parameters in patients with heart failure resulting from valvular heart disease. Method: The cardiac function parameters, including left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF), left ventricle end-diastole diameter (LVEDD), fractional shortening (FS), and N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), were measured in 19 patients before and after TSB treatment. The patients were also classified on the basis of NYHA classification system. Results: 4 weeks of TSB administration improved cardiac function in 18 of 19 patients (94.74%). The patients' LVEF, LVEDD, and NT-proBNP were all improved significantly after treatment. Conclusions: The favorable clinical outcome of TSB administration suggests an alternative treatment for the patients with heart failure caused by valvular dysfunctions.