Incremental prognostic value of early postoperative right ventricular systolic function in patients undergoing surgery for isolated severe tricuspid regurgitation

BACKGROUND: Preoperative right ventricular end-systolic area (RV-ESA) and haemoglobin level have been suggested to be independent predictors of long-term prognosis in patients undergoing corrective surgery for isolated severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR). AIMS: To investigate whether early postoperative echocardiography provides useful prognostic information in addition to preoperative clinical and echocardiographic variables. METHODS: 69 consecutive patients undergoing corrective surgery for isolated severe TR (60 women, mean 57.6±8.9 years) were studied. Comprehensive preoperative echocardiography was performed in all patients, with early postoperative echocardiography in all patients except one. During follow-up (median 40 months, range 6-86 months), clinical events were investigated, defined as operative mortality, cardiovascular death, repeated open heart surgery and readmission due to cardiovascular problems. RESULTS: 28 patients (41%) were categorised as New York Heart Association class II, 36 (52%) as III and 5 (7%) as IV. 63 patients (91.3%) had undergone prior left-sided valve surgery. Seven (10.1%) patients died before discharge. Of the remaining 62 patients, three died during follow-up, and eight required readmission due to cardiovascular problems. On multivariate analyses using clinical and preoperative variables, RV-ESA (p=0.006) and haemoglobin level (p<0.001) were independent predictors of event-free survival. When early postoperative echocardiography variables were included, preoperative haemoglobin and early postoperative RV-FAC were predictors of long-term event-free survival. On receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis, early postoperative RV-FAC≥31% predicted event-free survival with a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 83% (p<0.001). The addition of early postoperative echocardiographic RV-FAC markedly improved the prognostic utility of the model containing preoperative haemoglobin level and echocardiographic RV-ESA (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Early postoperative RV-FAC, measured by echocardiography, provided valuable information additional to preoperative RV-ESA and hemoglobin level that was useful for predicting long-term clinical events following corrective TR surgery.