Right Ventricular Unloading: Lessons from the Left

Excerpt

The notion of using vasodilators for primary pulmonary hypertension is not new, but interest in such treatment has increased, perhaps because of the success achieved with impedance reducing therapy for left ventricular failure. Beneficial hemodynamic effects with vasodilators such as hydralazine or diazoxide have been reported (1-3), and one report has suggested that phentolamine may produce similar effects in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension (4). Others, however, have not shown these agents to be beneficial in similar patients (5), and Cohen and Kronzon (6) in this issue report not only that phentolamine was not beneficial in a patient with primary