[Acute heart failure: mechanical circulatory support].

Mechanical circulatory support can be used in patients suffering from acute heart failure if conventional measures are inadequate to provide hemodynamic stabilization to avoid organ hypoperfusion. In addition to treating the underlying disease such measures therefore play an important role in emergency and intensive care medicine, resulting in a reduction of the high mortality in untreated cardiogenic shock from up to 80 % to 40 %. Novel minimally-invasive circulatory support systems may extend the spectrum of indications in the future.