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In patients with severe heart failure life expectancy is short, the quality of life is affected, and the service costs are very high. Drug therapies remain restricted despite continuous clinical research. Therefore new therapeutic approaches have been attempted to improve the signs and symptoms of the disorder. In our study we followed patients suffering from class-IV cardiac failure concomitant with chronic renal failure. The patients were initially treated by means of hemofiltration, and subsequently they underwent a personalized dialysis program. The survival rate after 2 years was 62.5%. In 7 of the 8 patients the results revealed a drop to a class-III condition. The hospitalization period was limited to a few days. Early dialytic therapy represents a reality for such patients.

Heart failure of class IV NYHA has a very severe prognosis. Its most frequent electrolytic alterations are hyponatremia, hypokalemia, and hypomagnesemia which can cause serious arrhythmias and sudden death. The regulation of the electrolytic equilibrium by means of pharmacological therapy becomes impossible in patients with severe heart failure resistant to strong doses of diuretics in the oligo-anuric phase. This study focused on the use of daily hemofiltration in a group of patients suffering from cardiac insufficiency of class IV NYHA. The results have been evaluated over 1 year.

The rule conceived the monastery as a citadel of divine service so that medicine, together with other arts, was the subject of studies and searches which contributed to the foundation of monastic medicine. In the 14th and 15th centuries, Cistercian monks did not limit themselves to the study of the ancient treatises on medicinal herbs, but enlarged their knowledge through clinical experience to such an extent that they created the principal therapy of diseases for about five centuries.

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