Atrial failure is a new clinical syndrome,which refers to the impaired heart function,clinical symptoms,and worsening quality of life or life expectancy,caused by any atrial dysfunction without any obvious heart valvular or ventricular abnormality.Atrial dysfunction is commonly considered to be the result of other cardiovascular disease rather than an underlying cause,which renders misdiagnosis in the early phase of atrial disease.We presented this review of atrial failure based on relevant domestic and international research reports and systematically reviewed the atrial anatomy and physiology,and analyzed atrial failure from aspects of etiology,pathogenesis,clinical manifestations,imaging diagnosis,treatment and intervention.