When To Hospitalize in Congestive Heart Failure

Mandatory for impending pulmonary edema, hospitalization is also indicated for the minority of patients who no longer respond to the measures that permit most to be treated at home. Hospitalization gives the physician an opportunity to improve his application of the three “D's” of therapy-digitalis, diuretics, and diet-in the particular case, and to determine why the patient has become refractory to treatment.