Mortality after tricuspid valve procedures: A 27-year, single-center experience

To assess mortality after tricuspid valve (TV) surgery in a large single-center patient cohort.

Data from 392 TV procedures performed between 1989 and 2015 in 388 adult patients were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were divided into groups according to the type of concomitant procedure, ie, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) (TV + CABG group; n = 87), other valve surgery (TV + valve group; n = 240), or an isolated TV procedure with or without another minor procedure (isolated TV group; n = 65), and the era of the operation, ie, 1989-2005 (n = 173) or 2006-2015 (n = 219). Control groups of patients who underwent other valve procedures and/or CABG during the same time periods were used for comparison.

During the most recent era, the annual number of TV procedures increased 2.4-fold, mainly for TV + valve procedures (2.8-fold). Within the TV + valve group, a larger proportion of patients had mild-to-moderate tricuspid regurgitation (grade ≤2) compared with the first-time period (P = .001). The TV + CABG group had significantly greater mortality than both the other groups during both time periods, whereas isolated TV procedure had the lowest mortality rates with the exception of the TV + valve group during the most recent era (P = .41). Survival for patients undergoing TV + valve procedures has improved significantly during the last decade (P = .001) and was comparable with that for other valve operations during this period.

In the last decade, TV repair has been performed more frequently and at lower grades of tricuspid regurgitation compared with previously, and mortality after TV procedures has decreased.