Top Things to Know: Palliative Care and Advanced Cardiovascular Disease in Adults
Published: April 17, 2025
Prepared by Paul St. Laurent, DNP, RN, Vice President, Science & Medicine, American Heart Association
- Palliative care (PC) in advanced cardiovascular disease (CVD) focuses on alleviating common symptoms such as dyspnea, pain, and fatigue using pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches.
- Palliative care is essential for adults with advanced CVD to enhance quality of life (QOL), extending beyond end-of-life care to encompass the entire disease course.
- Key components of PC include effective communication, shared decision-making, age-sensitive care—such as addressing the unique needs of older adults with comorbidities or frailty—and advance care planning tailored to the needs of each person.
- Improving QOL is a central goal of PC, addressing the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual challenges faced by individuals with advanced CVD.
- Psychological and spiritual support is a cornerstone of PC, helping patients navigate the emotional burden and stress associated with advanced CVD.
- Palliative care offers crucial support to care partners, helping them cope with emotional, familial, and financial challenges during illness and following the loss of a loved one.
- Delivering culturally competent PC is essential to address disparities, such as language barriers and socioeconomic challenges, to ensure equitable access to high-quality care for diverse populations.
- Transparent communication and collaborative decision-making are essential in managing life-sustaining cardiac devices, including decisions about deactivating implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) at the end of life.
- Engaging care partners is fundamental in PC, as they are critical in supporting patients with advanced CVD.
- More research is needed to identify effective symptom management strategies, evaluate long-term outcomes of PC interventions, develop culturally tailored care models, and establish comprehensive support systems for care partners.
Citation
Graven LJ, Kitko L, Abshire Saylor M, Allen L, Durante A, Evangelista LS, Fiedler A, Kirkpatrick J, Mixon L, Wells R; on behalf of the American Heart Association Complex Cardiovascular Nursing Care Science Committee of the Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; and Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesia. Palliative care and advanced cardiovascular disease in adults: not just end-of-life care: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circulation. Published online April 17, 2025. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001323