Tricuspid regurgitation — a leak in the heart's tricuspid valve that allows blood to flow back from the right ventricle to the right atrium — is relatively rare after a mitral valve repair procedure, but new research from the American Association for Thoracic Surgery shows it is more common among older patients with atrial fibrillation and impaired heart function.
The authors of the study examined data on more than 1,100 patients who had undergone mitral valve repair between 1989 and 2010. Overall, 45 patients (3.3 percent) developed moderate or severe tricuspid regurgitation, fourteen of whom had undergone previous surgery to repair the tricuspid valve.
"Although the number of patients who developed [tricuspid regurgitation] after [mitral valve] repair was small in our study, the effect of severe [tricuspid regurgitation] was devastating with a high mortality at one year after the diagnosis, which usually occurred during an episode of heart failure," said co-author Tirone E. David, MD.
The two factors investigators identified as being predictive of developing tricuspid regurgitation were older age and preoperative atrial fibrillation. Insertion of a permanent pacemaker and the grade of tricuspid regurgitation within the first month of surgery also appeared linked with complications, though not as strongly.
More articles on cardiac care:
Infection control, antibiotic stewardship reduces cardiac SSIs
Mount Sinai researchers discover how to reverse cardiac fibrosis in heart failure models
High rate of newborn deaths after heart surgery raises questions for Philadelphia hospital