Background: Frailty is prevalent in patients with heart failure (HF) and associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Hence, there has been increased interest in the reversibility of frailty following treatment with medication or surgery. This systematic review aimed to assess the reversibility of frailty in patients with HF before and after surgical interventions aimed at treating the underlying cause of HF. It also aimed to assess the efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation and prehabilitation in reversing or preventing frailty in patients with HF. Methods and Results:Searches of PubMed, MEDLINE and Academic Search Ultimate identified studies with HF patients undergoing interventions to reverse frailty. Titles, abstracts and full texts were screened for eligibility based on the PRISMA guidelines and using predefined inclusion/exclusion criteria in relation to participants, intervention, control, outcome and study design. In total, 14 studies were included: 3 assessed the effect of surgery, 7 assessed the effect of rehabilitation programs, 2 assessed the effect of a prehabilitation program and 2 assessed the effect of program interruptions on HF patients.Conclusions: Overall, it was found that frailty is at least partially reversible and potentially preventable in patients with HF. Interruption of rehabilitation programs resulted in deterioration of the frailty status. Future research should focus on the role of prehabilitation in mitigating frailty prior to surgical intervention.

Purpose of Review Recent advances in donor heart preservation have allowed the utilization of hearts that would typically be discarded due to prolonged ischemic times or donation via the circulatory death pathway. This review will discuss recent advances in donor heart preservation including optimization of machine perfusion technologies and future strategies of potential benefit for the donor heart and transplant outcomes. Recent Findings Improvements in organ preservation strategies have enabled retrieval of donor hearts that were not ideal for static cold storage. Machine perfusion (normothermic and hypothermic) and normothermic regional perfusion have ultimately expanded the donor pool for adult heart transplantation. Xenotransplantation has also incorporated machine perfusion for porcine donor heart preservation. Summary Traditional static cold storage is feasible for non-complex donors and transplants. Machine perfusion has enabled increased donor heart utilization however optimal preservation strategies are dependent on the donor criteria, predicted ischemic times and surgical complexity.