MATERIAL AND METHODS
From May 2009 to December 2015, 688 patients undergoing TA for functional TR at Prince Sultan Cardiac Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were initially scheduled for this study according to the following criteria: (i) MV disease requiring surgical intervention; (ii) no pathologic changes in TV leaflets; (iii) no previous TV repair; (iv) not associated tricuspid valvuloplasty. Early results of this study have been already reported6. Twenty-six patients died in the early postoperative period, so they were excluded from the analysis. Moreover, 239 patients were lost at follow up because they came from very far cities or neighboring states of the Arabic peninsula.
Finally 423 patients, where transthoracic echocardiographic evaluation was performed preoperatively and at follow up, were included into the study. Retrospective analysis of our database was approved by the institutional review board, which waived patient consent. In 54 out of 423 (13%) a moderate-or-more TR was recorded at the discharge5. Hence, we analyzed the long-term results of two cohorts of patients: 54 with residual TR and 369 without residual TR, with particular attention to the latter one.
Preoperative characteristics of the study patients are summarized in Table 1.