Today, the morbidity and mortality of heart failure are increasing year by year in the world. Mechanical circulatory assist devices has been one of the most effective ways to treat heart failure. The experimental study and clinical application of counterpulsation technique are now becoming more and more popular.Intraaortic balloon pump is representative, and has become the most frequently used shortterm mechanical assist device to treat heart failure. Recently, paraaortic counterpulsation device and other new counterpulsation devices have been developing very rapidly. The principle of counterpulsation and its historical background, as well as the development of various counterpulsation devices are reviewed in this paper.