Heart failure may affect 500,000 new people each year. Heart transplantation has leveled off at approximately 2,500-3,000 cases per year in the United States. Thus, new nontransplant surgical alternatives may be necessary to treat many of the patients who progress to intractable Class III, or especially Class IV heart failure. In addition to left ventricular assist devices, other operations have been used and are now being developed for this purpose. These include left ventricular resection (Batista operation), mitral valve repair, autologous skeletal muscle cardiac assist, splint and compression devices, as well as left ventricular reconstruction by the Dor procedure. All of these procedures have been, and are currently being, evaluated for the surgical treatment of congestive heart failure and they will be reviewed in this article. Although many appear very promising, ongoing trials and retrospective reviews will be increasingly necessary to vigorously define which of the nontransplant surgical alternatives are the best procedures going forward for the large numbers of patients with congestive failure.