The Journal of cardiovascular nursing
-
Review
Considerations related to disability and exercise in elderly women with congestive heart failure.
Congestive heart failure is one of the most common diagnoses in older women. This article reviews physiologic and pathophysiologic factors that contribute to disability in older women with normal left ejection fraction congestive heart failure; the possibility that aerobic exercise training may be an effective means to reduce the disability experienced by these women is examined. Most literature has dealt with low-output ejection fraction congestive heart failure. ⋯ A physiologic model is proposed that includes peripheral and cardiac factors caused by heart disease, and factors caused by aging, that may account for increasing the disabling consequences and reducing exercise tolerance of older women with normal left ejection fraction congestive heart failure. The potential impact of exercise training on these factors is discussed. Directions for practice and further research are included.
-
Maintaining adequate oxygenation to promote vital organ functions represents a common challenge for the critical care nurse. Critically ill patients with impaired cardiac function may be particularly vulnerable to tissue oxygen deprivation because they have limited ability to increase oxygen delivery when oxygen demands increase. ⋯ Interventions that enhance patient tolerance to nursing procedures by supporting the balance between oxygen supply and demand promote physiologic adaptation and may prevent complications associated with hypoxia such as cardiac dysrhythmias, hypotension, and cardiac arrest. This discussion will focus on the principles of tissue oxygenation, the effects of nursing interventions on oxygen demand, and interventions that may enhance patient tolerance to routine nursing interventions.