Surgical approach to combined mitral and tricuspid valve disease: good neighbourhood rules

Tricuspid regurgitation afflicts more than one-third of patients with mitral valve disease during their clinical history, and negatively affects their outcomes, increasing mortality and hospitalizations for heart failure and reducing the quality of life. A renewed interest in the ‘neglected valve’ has increased the frequency of the combined treatment of these two diseases. Undoubtedly necessary in patients with degenerative mitral valve disease in the presence of two severe valve defects, tricuspid annuloplasty has proven to be safe and effective even if performed prophylactically, when tricuspid annular dilation coexists with primary mitral dysfunction. In the absence of survival benefits, however, this additional surgical procedure increases the risk of high-grade atrio-ventricular blocks and the need for a definitive pacemaker. On the other hand, the role of surgery has been scaled down in patients with functional mitral and tricuspid regurgitation. In this context, a multidisciplinary approach is needed and transcatheter alternatives are increasingly the chosen treatment option. A new therapeutic algorithm is therefore looming on the horizon. In the future, the treatment of tricuspid and mitral valve disease may be considered two potentially distinct and successive phases of an integrated heart failure patients care process.