Background Surgery for tricuspid valve ( TV ) diseases is associated with poor prognosis, but few studies have described the long‐term outcomes by comparing TV repair and replacement in isolated and concomitant TV surgeries separately. Methods and Results Between 2000 and 2013, adult patients who underwent TV repair or replacement surgeries were identified from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Outcomes of interest included all‐cause mortality, composite outcome, and readmission attributable to any cause. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to reduce confounding effects. A total of 2644 patients with a mean follow‐up of 4.9 years were included. Of them, 12.6% and 87.4% underwent isolated and concomitant TV surgery, respectively. The in‐hospital mortality rates for isolated and concomitant TV surgery were 8.7% and 8.6%, respectively, whereas all‐cause mortality rates were 41.7% and 36.8%, respectively. Compared with TV replacement, TV repair demonstrated significantly lower risks of all‐cause mortality (concomitant: hazard ratio [ HR ], 0.76; 95% CI, 0.59–0.99), composite outcome (isolated: subdistribution HR , 0.55; 95% CI, 0.35–0.89; concomitant: subdistribution HR , 0.63; 95% CI, 0.46–0.86), and readmission (isolated: subdistribution HR , 0.64; 95% CI, 0.46–0.91; concomitant: subdistribution HR , 0.72; 95% CI, 0.60–0.86), except insignificant difference in all‐cause mortality in isolated surgery. Conclusions Compared with replacement, TV repair is associated with better short‐ and long‐term outcomes in both isolated and concomitant TV surgery. However, further prospective clinical trials are warranted.

Background In 2012, we identified the dissemination of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) sequence type (ST)45 strain in 14 nursing homes in Taiwan and foreign nurse workers, a significant risk factor for MRSA carriage. We conducted this study to understand MRSA carriage and molecular characteristics among foreign workers recruited from Southeastern Asian countries. Methods A cross-sectional study involving a total of 1935 foreign workers—929 (arrival group) and 1006 (staying group)—from Vietnam (n = 843), Indonesia (n = 780), the Philippines (n = 239), and Thailand (n = 70) were conveniently recruited during upon-arrival and regular health examination in a regional hospital. A nasal swab was obtained from each participant for detection of MRSA. Results Overall, MRSA carriage rate was 2.72%, with 2.26% for arrival group and 3.18% for staying group, and 4.74% for Vietnamese, 1.28% for Indonesians, 1.26% for Filipino, and none for Thai workers. Pulsotype AK/ST45 (57%) and pulsotype AX/ST188 (14%) were the top 2 dominant clones for the arrival group, whereas pulsotype D/ST59 (41%) (an endemic community clone in Taiwan) and pulsotype AK/ST45 (19%) were predominant for the staying group. A significant decrease of pulsotype AK/ST45 from 57% to 19% (P = .007) and increase of pulsotype D/ST59 from 4.8% to 41% (P = .004) were found between the arrival and the staying groups. Conclusions Approximately 3% of foreign workers recruited from Southeastern Asian countries to Taiwan were colonized with MRSA, including the ST45 strain. However, the MRSA isolates from workers staying in Taiwan were mostly a locally endemic clone and genetically different from those identified from workers on arrival.

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