Many healthcare professionals have avoided applying compression therapy to patients with heart failure and oedema for fear of overloading the heart. Compression therapy is the gold standard of care for treating lower limb oedema and leg ulceration. Knowledge gaps and misconceptions have led to many myths amongst healthcare professionals, often preventing this patient group receiving the necessary treatment to manage their oedema effectively. New guidance is now available.
Heart failure affects an estimated 920,000 people in the UK (2). This is likely to increase due to a more elderly population, people are more likely to survive cardiac arrest due to improvements in emergency medicine and go on to develop heart failure (3), and more patients at risk due to increases in diabetes, high blood pressure and social deprivation (4).
