Gammie JS, Chu MWA, Falk V, et al. - Patients with severe degenerative mitral regurgitation are frequently identified to exhibit tricuspid regurgitation. Researchers herein examined whether tricuspid-valve repair should be performed during mitral-valve surgery in patients who have moderate tricuspid regurgitation or less-than-moderate regurgitation with annular dilatation.

• A total of 401 patients, who were undergoing mitral-valve surgery for degenerative mitral regurgitation, were randomly assigned to receive a procedure with or without tricuspid annuloplasty (TA).

• Patients who underwent mitral-valve surgery plus TA had a lower incidence of a primary-end-point event (a composite of reoperation for tricuspid regurgitation, progression of tricuspid regurgitation by two grades from baseline or the presence of severe tricuspid regurgitation, or death) at 2 years; this reduction was driven by less frequent progression to severe tricuspid regurgitation.

• Permanent pacemaker implantation was more frequent in correlation with tricuspid repair.