Ventura Hector O, Mehra Mandeep R
Cardiomyopathy and Heart Transplantation Center, Ochsner Clinic Foundation, 1514 Jefferson Highway, New Orleans, LA 70121, USA.
J Card Fail. 2005 May;11(4):247-52. doi: 10.1016/j.cardfail.2004.10.003.
Dropsy was a term used to describe generalized swelling and was synonymous with heart failure. Its treatment options were scanty and were aimed to cause "emptying of the system" or to relieve fluid retention. These remedies were rudimentary, erratic in action, and associated with inconvenient side effects.
Bloodletting, either by venesection or by leeches, was a popular way to alleviate symptoms from dropsy. Although bloodletting, purgatives, cauterization, and Southey tubes were drastic, their use demonstrated that physicians were not powerless to help people with severe heart failure. Several centuries of intensive investigations in different areas of heart failure ended with the development of new therapeutic strategies that made bloodletting obsolete.
In an era when adequate treatment of heart failure has become a reality, it is appropriate to acknowledge those who paved the way to such great progress.
水肿是一个用于描述全身性肿胀的术语，与心力衰竭同义。其治疗选择匮乏，旨在实现“身体系统排空”或缓解液体潴留。这些疗法简陋，作用不稳定，且伴有不便的副作用。
通过静脉切开术或水蛭放血是缓解水肿症状的常用方法。尽管放血、泻药、烧灼术和索西氏管疗法较为激进，但它们的使用表明医生并非对严重心力衰竭患者束手无策。在心力衰竭不同领域进行的几个世纪的深入研究最终催生了新的治疗策略，使放血疗法过时。
在心力衰竭得到充分治疗已成为现实的时代，认可那些为取得如此巨大进展铺平道路的人是恰当的。
