Life Expectancy With Primary Pulmonary Hypertension

Increased blood pressure in the arteries that serve the lung and the right side of the heart characterizes primary pulmonary hypertension. The exact cause has not been identified. Several factors affect life expectancy.

Nature of Condition

• This condition is incurable and gets progressively worse. Treatments can mitigate symptoms but serious complications can arise that can be fatal—including blood clots, right-sided heart failure, internal bleeding and abnormal heart rhythm.

Factors Affecting Prognosis

• Severity and whether or not you have received treatment primarily affect the prognosis for primary pulmonary hypertension, according to Dr. Siabak Nabili of MedicineNet.com. Other factors include diagnosis after age 45, evidence of right-sided heart failure and not responding well to treatment.

Survival Rates

• People with untreated pulmonary hypertension have an average survival rate of about three years, according to Dr. Nabili. Advances in treatment, however, can prolong survival up to 10 years or more in patients with right-sided heart failure, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Treatment

• This condition requires complex treatment with a variety of medications and other treatments. It can take awhile to find the most effective regimen for a particular patient, according to the Mayo Clinic—even then, it can lose effectiveness. Calcium channel blockers in particular can extend life by 20 percent in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension, according to the AAFP.

Considerations

• No one can predict how long you will survive with primary pulmonary hypertension. This is especially true for patients who respond to treatment, as this improves the outlook, according to Dr. Nabili.