Michele Di Mauro

and 8 more

OBJECTIVE. For many years, functional tricuspid regurgitation (FTR) was considered negligible after treatment of left-sided heart valve surgery. The aim of the present network meta-analysis is to summarize the results of four approaches in order to establish the possible gold standard. METHODS A systematic search was performed to identify all publications reporting the outcomes of four approach for FTR, not tricuspid annuloplasty (no TA), suture annuloplasty (SA), flexible (FRA), rigid rings (RRA). All studies reporting at least one the four endpoints (early and late mortality, early and late moderate or more TFR) were included in a Bayesian network meta-analysis. RESULTS There were 31 included studies with 9,663 patients. Aggregate early mortality was 5.3% no TA, 7.2% SA, 6.6% FRA and 6.4% RRA; Early TR moderate-or-more was 9.6%, 4.8%, 4.6% and 3.8%; Late mortality was 22.5%, 18.2%, 11.9% and 11.9%; Late TR moderate-or-more was 27.9%, 18.3%, 14.3% and 6.4%. Rigid or semirigid ring annuloplasty was the most effective approach for decreasing the risk of late moderate or more FTR (–85% vs. no TA; –64% vs. SA; –32% vs. FRA). Concerning late mortality, no significant differences were found among different surgical approaches, however, flexible or rigid rings reduced significantly the risk of late mortality (78% and 47%, respectively) compared with not performing TA mortality. No differences were found for early outcomes. CONCLUSIONS. Ring annuloplasty seems to offer better late outcomes compare to either suture annuloplasty or not performing TA. In particular rigid or semirigid rings provides more stable FTR across time.