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Treatment for heart disease is often costly, ranging from a couple of hundred dollars for medication to $20,000 (USD) for surgery.
Cardiovascular diseases are among the most fatal diseases across the globe. There have been numerous developments in the field of treatment of heart diseases.
Treatment and care for patients with heart disease can be administered in several ways. This could be done in the form of medical or pharmacological intervention. Rehabilitation is the most crucial stage in the treatment of a patient with heart disease.
Treatment costs for heart disease depend on the type of treatment, doctors, hospitals, and insurance plans. The cost could be a couple of hundred dollars for medication and $20,000 (USD) for surgery.
Medical interventions involve cardiopulmonary resuscitation, stent placement, angioplasty, angiography, surgeries, cardioversion, defibrillators (such as implantable cardioverter defibrillators, enhanced external counterpulsation, pacemakers), and heart transplantation.
5 treatment options for heart disease
- Pharmacological intervention
- Several drugs are available to treat heart diseases. These drugs should never be self-prescribed and should be used only after consulting a doctor.
- Some drugs widely used to treat heart diseases are:
- ACE inhibitors: Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors prevent the conversion of angiotensin 1 to angiotensin 2 hormones in the body. These can effectively reduce blood pressure. Apart from managing blood pressure, they are used to manage heart failure and attack.
- ARB: Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) bind to the receptor for angiotensin in the blood vessel. Angiotensin causes vasoconstriction and elevated blood pressure. These medications target the receptors for the enzyme angiotensin and block them. This, in turn, reduces blood pressure.
- Other medications: Calcium channel blockers, diuretics, aspirin therapy, beta-blockers, etc.
- Stenting
- Stents are mostly used in patients with coronary artery diseases. Stents are small, narrow, expandable tubes that are used to dilate the narrowed arteries. They are planted along the arteries’ circumference. Problems of plaque buildup in arteries can be alleviated using stents. They provide relief from chest pain and can help prevent heart attack.
- Angioplasty
- Angioplasty is a type of stent that is made of metal mesh and is put inside the arteries to dilate them. This procedure is called percutaneous coronary artery intervention. It is performed under local anesthesia and does not require any major incisions.
- People who undergo this procedure require less recovery time. However, one adverse effect of this procedure is blood clots. If they form, they can cause complete irreversible artery blockage.
- Heart bypass surgery
- In this surgical procedure, blood vessels from another part of the body are taken to go around or bypass the blocked vessel. This increases the flow of oxygenated blood to the heart. This is called coronary artery bypass graft.
- Nevertheless, following this surgery one will have to follow a healthy diet combined with regular exercise.
- Cardioversion
- Cardioversion is done when the heart beats irregularly. A cardioverter is a machine that sends electrical impulses to the heart and helps restore the normal rhythm of the heart. There are two types of cardioversions namely, chemical and electrical cardioversion. Chemical cardioversion is carried out using medications.
- However, electrical cardioversion is administered through shocks using paddles to regulate the heartbeat.