Let"s get straight to the heart of the matter--the heart"s job is to move blood. Day and night, the muscles of your heart contract and relax to pump blood throughout your body. When blood returns to the heart, it follows a complicated pathway. If you were in the bloodstream, you would follow the steps below one by one. Oxygen-poor blood shown in blue flows from the body into the right atrium. Blood flows through the right atrium into the right ventricle. The right ventricle pumps the blood to the lungs, where the blood releases waste...
the problem. Surgery may also be helpful in correcting congenital heart defects that can lead to heart failure. Coronary artery bypass graft surgery and catheterization using a balloon to flatten fatty deposits called angioplasty are among the therarpeutic techniques used to prevent and treat heart failure caused by occluded, or blocked, arteries.

Heart transplants are a last resort in treating severe heart failure caused by diseased heart muscle. Although the success rate of heart transplants has significantly improved, the cost of the operation and shortage of donor organs makes it impractical except as a last resort.