Surgical approaches to dilated cardiomyopathy.

Heart failure is one of the leading causes of hospitalization in the United States today. Congestive heart failure is a chronic progressive disease with the common central element being the remodeling of the cardiac chamber associated with ventricular dilation. Secondary mitral regurgitation is a complication of end-stage cardiomyopathy and is associated with a poor prognosis. Historically, these patients were not considered operative candidates due to the high morbidity and mortality in this patient population. Heart transplantation is now considered the standard of treatment for select patients with end-stage heart disease, however, it is only applicable to a small number of patients. In an effort to address this problem, newer and alternative surgical approaches are evolving, including mitral valve annuloplasty, the Batista myoplasty, and cardiomyoplasty. When these operative techniques that alter the shape of the left ventricle are utilized, in combination with optimal medical management for heart failure, survival is improved and patients can avoid or postpone transplantation.