Donor Tricuspid Annuloplasty During Orthotopic Heart Transplantation: Long-Term Results of a Prospective Controlled Study

Tricuspid valve regurgitation after heart transplantation

“…The first received heart transplant alone while the second group received concomitant DeVega tricuspid annuloplasty. Average length of follow up was approximately 6 years and while there were no differences in survival, the latter group had decreased average TVR (1.5±1.3 vs. 0.5±0.4, P=0.01 and a lower percentage of 2+ or greater TVR (34% vs. 0%, P=0.01) (16). The authors assert that given these advantages, that concomitant tricuspid valve repair should be considered as a routine adjunct to heart transplantation.…”

Outcomes in Bicaval Versus Biatrial Techniques in Heart Transplantation: An Analysis of the UNOS Database

“…[2][3][4][5][6] Studies comparing the two techniques have shown that the bicaval anastomotic technique leads to improved atrial function, 7,8 lower rate of post-operative arrhythmias, 9 decreased need for permanent pacing, 10 decreased tricuspid regurgitation, [11][12][13] and in one series improved survival. 14 As a result of this perceived superiority, the number of heart transplants conducted with the bicaval technique has increased steadily since 1995.…”

Treatment of Chronic Heart Failure

“…Despite increasing use of the bicaval technique, tricuspid regurgitation remains a difficult problem early and late after heart transplantation. Adding a tricuspid annuloplasty to the transplant operation has been recently shown to decrease the incidence of tricuspid regurgitation and may even improve survival [91]. Heterotopic heart transplantation was first performed by Barnard in 1974 as a left ventricular bypass and involves placing a donor heart in the right lower thorax where it is anastomosed to work in parallel to the recipient heart, which is left intact.…”