Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of moderate-or-less functional tricuspid regurgitation (TR) treatment on the clinical outcome of patients with mitral valve (MV) surgery.
Methods: From October 2001 to January 2005, 167 patients in our hospital with MV surgery and without organic tricuspid valve (TV) disease or pulmonary hypertension (PH) showed moderate-or-less functional TR preoperatively, and 41.9% of these patients were treated with TR (group T), compared with 58.1% untreated with TR (group no-T). According to tricuspid annulus dimension (TAD)/body surface area (BSA), these 167 patients were further divided into another 2 groups (A and B): group A (70 patients) represented TAD/BSA ≤ 21 mm/m2 with 32 patients from group T and 38 from group no-T, and group B (97 patients) represented TAD/BSA > 21 mm/m2 with 38 patients from group T and 59 patients from group no-T. There was no statistical difference in preoperative and operative variables between the 2 groups. Meanwhile, among the 167 patients with MV surgery, 157 patients were replaced with MV and 10 patients were repaired with MV, and De Vega technique was constantly used for TR treatment. All the results were estimated by multivariate analysis.
Results: The median follow-up time was 63 months (25th and 75th percentiles are 53 and 94 months, respectively); 30-day mortality was 3% (1.4% in group T versus 4.1% in group no-T; P = .31). Adjusted 5-year survival was 70.7% (66.6%-80.4%) with 85.3% (83.0%-93.4%) in group T and 64.7% (33.7%-58.3%) in group no-T, P = .001. Among the 70 patients with TAD/BSA ≤ 21 mm/m2, patients who received treatment of moderate-or-less TR and those who did not showed similar secondary TR grade at postoperative period (0.5 ± 0.6 in group T versus 0.9 ± 0.9 in group no-T; P = .2) and follow-up (1.3 ± 1.1 in group T versus 1.8 ± 1.1 in group no-T; P = .06). In subgroup B (TAD/BSA > 21 mm/m2), patients who received tricuspid valvoplasty manifested more significantly improved outcome than patients without functional TR at postoperative period (0.8 ± 0.8 in group T versus 1.6 ± 1.3 in group no-T; P = .03) and follow-up (2.0 ± 1.2 in group T versus 3.0 ± 1.1 in group no-T; P = .005). The multivariate analysis identified TAD/BSA > 21 mm/m2 and preoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) as the risk factors for lower survival at follow-up period.
Conclusions: Patients with MV surgery have better midterm outcome when they receive either more aggressive and effective surgical treatment for functional TR or moderate-or-less TR preoperatively. Indexed TAD (TAD/BSA > 21 mm/m2) is a more reliable surgical guideline for the treatment of TR. Preoperative tricuspid annulus dilation and AF might be predictors of late lower survival.