JUAN CRESTANELLO: Welcome to the cardiovascular surgery series where I review the latest research in cardiovascular surgery from the Mayo Clinic in just 2 minutes. I am Dr. Juan Crestanello. I am a cardiac surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. We will discuss today the long term outcomes of patients undergoing tricuspid valve surgery. In this study, we examine the best management strategy for tricuspid valve disease in adults. We reviewed 2,500 patients who had tricuspid valve surgery over the course of 18 years. 70% of the patients received tricuspid repair, while 30% received replacement. Among the patients who received a repair 54%, of the patients received a ring angioplasty. Replacement was done with bioprostheses in 84% of the patients.

After matching for the baseline and operative characteristics, the overall survival was better for tricuspid valve repair than for replacement. The hazard of mortality was 1.4 times higher with replacement than with repair. A long term survival with mechanical and biological prostheses was similar. And the rate of reoperation was similar with repair and with replacement. We conclude that patients who undergo repair have better survival without having a higher incidence of getting a reoperation compared to those who undergo tricuspid replacement. Tricuspid valve repair should be considered whenever feasible. Thank you for listening to the Mayo Clinic cardiovascular surgery series.