Pericardial Strip versus Ring Annuloplasty for Repair of Functional Tricuspid

Background: Functional tricuspid regurgitation is a challenge regarding indications for repair and proper surgical technique. Aim of the study: We reviewed our midterm results of tricuspid valve repair for functional regurgitation comparing pericardial strip versus ring annuloplasties. Pa-tients and methods: From January 2008 to December 2013, we operated 59 patients (male:female, 41:18, with a mean age of 34 ± 14 years) for functional tricuspid regurgitation. Tricuspid annu-loplasty was done using pericardial strip in 39 patients and ring in 20 patients. Concomitant pro-cedures were mitral valve replacement in 66 % of patients, aortic valve replacement in 5 % and double valve replacement in 29%. Clinical and echocardiographic data were collected. Results: Preoperative characteristics of the two groups were similar regarding age, percentage of female patients, New York Heart Association functional class and pulmonary artery pressure. More pa-tients with preoperative right ventricular dysfunction were found in pericardial annuloplasty group although this was not statistically significant (13 versus 5; P = 0.52). Operative times were similar in both groups. We had one mortality case (1.69%) due to low cardiac output in the peri-cardial group. Postoperative complications included reexploration for bleeding in one patient an