Categories

What Are the Four Stages of Congestive Heart Failure?

What is Congestive Heart Failure?

Heart failure can be a confusing medical term. For people who do not know what it means, heart failure may sound like a state where the heart has stopped working. While this is possible, heart failure is more nuanced.

Often referred to simply as heart failure, congestive heart failure is a progressive condition that limits the ability of your heart muscles to pump blood around the body efficiently. When doctors say a person has heart failure, this is what they mean.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) refers to the stage when fluid buildup in the heart prevents it from pumping blood well. CHF affects the lower chambers of the heart (ventricles) that pump blood to your organs and tissues. This condition occurs in stages, and many people do not experience symptoms until it has progressed to certain stages.

CHF is a chronic, life-threatening condition. Treatment is most effective when the condition is detected in its early stages. The stages of this condition are based on the severity of symptoms and level of damage to the heart. In this article, you will learn about the four stages of congestive heart failure.