Cardiac and Respiratory Failure Program

Cardiogenic shock is a complex, life-threatening complication that most often happens due to a sudden cardiac event such as a heart attack. It requires prompt diagnosis and careful decision-making. Despite new drugs and medical devices, survival rates for patients experiencing cardiogenic shock remained at about 50 percent for nearly two decades.

In 2016, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions released a statement recommending a team-based approach to treating cardiogenic shock. Soon after, Inova Schar Heart and Vascular leaders developed a multidisciplinary cardiogenic "Shock Team," made up of interventional cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, advanced heart failure specialists and intensivists. This innovative, team-based approach dramatically improved patient survival rates at Inova, and they remain well above the national average today.

Shock Team members work together to determine each patient's treatment and provide timely, goal-oriented care to short-circuit the rapid downward spiral associated with cardiogenic shock.

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Inova's Standardized Protocols for Treatment of Cardiogenic Shock

About one-third of patients who have a pulmonary embolism (PE) will die from it. However, if it is recognized and treated early, most patients thrive.

Inova Schar Heart and Vascular created a Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) to respond to suspected or known PE. PERT provides an immediate, integrated team-based response for evaluation to determine a course of intervention and treatment. The team consists of pulmonologists, interventional radiologists, intensivists, cardiologists and emergency room physicians.

Meet the PERT Team

Meet Our Heart Failure Team

Meet Our CTEPH Team

ECMO. Short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, ECMO temporarily replaces the function of the heart and lungs. ECMO uses a device to pump blood into an artificial lung and back into the bloodstream.

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Learn how Inova’s team-based approach and ECMO saved this mom’s life during a dramatic delivery

Cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) is an innovative heart failure device therapy that improves the contraction of the heart – allowing more oxygen-rich blood to reach the body.

Inova’s heart failure and electrophysiology/heart rhythm teams use this technology when medications aren’t enough to manage heart failure symptoms.

Impella® is a minimally-invasive, miniaturized ventricular assist device (VAD) and the world’s smallest heart pump. It supplements the heart’s pumping function, allowing the muscle to rest and recover in patients with depressed heart function and complex coronary anatomy. The Impella® device supports the heart during elective, high-risk and complex cardiac interventional procedures. It is used emergently for those suffering from life-threatening cardiogenic shock.

• Maintains hemodynamic stability
• Directly unloads the left ventricle
• Facilitates native heart recovery
• Improves quality of life

Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump Therapy is a device that helps your heart pump more blood.

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TandemHeart is a left atrial-to-femoral artery bypass system (small pump) that delivers a steady supply of oxygenated blood to the organs while decompressing the left ventricle (LV) to allow the heart's left ventricle to rest, i.e., reduce the heart's work.

Ventricular assist devices or "VADs," also commonly referred to as "LVADs," are mechanical pumps surgically implanted in a person's chest to help their weakened heart pump blood.

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