Kampo medicine for the holistic approach to older adults with heart failure

Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality in older adults and represents a significant clinical and economic burden on the health care system. However, there are many challenges in assessing and managing HF in elderly patients, who often have coexisting multimorbidity, frailty, and malnutrition. Therefore, it is often difficult to solve these problems with Western medicine alone, and a holistic approach, including Kampo medicine, can be helpful. In particular, managing volume control and frailty by adding Kampo formulas may help improve health-related quality of life and substantially impact prognosis in HF. This review article summarizes the role of Kampo medicine for older patients with HF and frailty.

Keywords: Frailty; Heart failure; Kampo medicine; Older adults; Quality of life.