heal after a cardiovascular disease

It may happen that the cardiac pump is no longer able to take the energy needs of the body, which usually manifests as abnormal shortness of breath, sometimes with edema, swelling of the lower limbs resulting in particular from the fact that the body tends to retain excess salt and water. This is called theheart failure . Shortness of breath, accompanied by palpitations, may also result from a disruption of the heart rhythm called arrhythmia complete with atrial fibrillation, with a major risk of blood clots within the heart chambers. These clots can break, migrate particularly in cerebral vessels and cause strokes.

In both cases, the patient should not passively his illness, but be conscious actor. He must acquire skills appropriate care to his own case, in collaboration with the physician and other health professionals involved in the monitoring and treatment of the disease, knowing that it is monitored and care over a long period, or even chronic, that is to say life. This is called therapeutic education.

Avoid dietary errors

With regard to heart failure, the goal of patient education is first to avoid dietary errors. It does not prohibit arbitrarily, but to understand why the patient must avoid eating foods such as oysters salt, cheese, meats, etc..

Should also know that the warning symptoms of decompensation. Excessive and rapid weight gain, an increase in shortness of breath, the appearance of edema of the lower limbs, all signs that should alert him immediately. A good knowledge of these symptoms can prevent hospitalizations are often multiple and prolonged (210,000 hospitalizations lasting an average of nine days in 2010 in our country) and thus significantly improve the comfort of living. Finally, the goal of patient education is to clearly explain to the patient the benefits of different drug treatments or non-medicated proposed (angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, beta-receptor antagonists mineralocorticosteroids, etc..), Their side effects, and most importantly, the imperative to observe scrupulously the treatment every day, all year round necessity.

Therapeutic education is usually done within specialized structures at the hospital and involves not only cardiologists but also dieticians and nurses. In France, a national program called I-Care has been developed to enable, through fun activities, acquire necessary for proper management of the disease knowledge.

Complete arrhythmia by atrial fibrillation, requires for its share of the therapeutic focus education on proper medication use anticoagulants . These drugs have the advantage of making the blood more fluid and thus effectively prevent the occurrence of stroke . Their disadvantage is that they increase the risk of hemorrhage. It is therefore crucial to educate patients on dosages to use biological tests to be performed, the effective area of anticoagulation (INR for vitamin K antagonists), interactions with other drugs that may either mitigate the effectiveness or increase the risk hémoragique the cons-indications and the first steps to take in case of abnormal bleeding. Since this year, to address the misuse responsible each year in France 17,000 hospitalizations and 4,000 deaths, patients AVK can benefit from personalized monitoring in the form of one or other meetings per year with their pharmacist.

Cardiovascular diseases are among the most common chronic diseases in number and more serious in terms of mortality and morbidity. Develop therapeutic education in the city is now a major objective of reducing hospitalization costs. The patient must become a partner of the players health to treat his illness, but beyond that, win a real benefit in terms of comfort of life.