RESUMO
Out of 350 cases of tricuspid regurgitation operated between 1968 and 1975, a serie of 53 prosthetic replacements (3 of them isolated) was analysed, with specification of operative indications, pre-operative condition, operative findings, procedure used and results. Operative death rate was high (28 per cent) and remote results (6 months to 7 years) were not all satisfactory. This is because functional "tricuspid regurgitation", secondary to advanced mitral lesions, expresses in fact considerable myocardial weakening with severe polyvisceral implications. This picture, where tricuspid patency is in fact contingent, is not always improved by mitral correction and reestablishment of a satisfactory tricuspid function, whatever the procedure used. Thus in very advanced mitral lesions, tricuspid repair should be done only if regurgitation is real and severe. Tricuspid prosthetic replacement should be reserved to valvular destruction; semi-circular annulo-plasty, which is efficient and not very traumatising, is applicable to all the other cases. The best treatment of this syndrome is preventive: as aortic lestions, mitral lesions should be operated early to permit a low risk operation and complete functional recuperation.
