[Surgical management of acquired tricuspid valve disease--the effects and comparison of tricuspid annuloplasty (De Vega) and tricuspid valve replacement].

A total of 92 patients with tricuspid valvular disease (TR) had surgical repair of DeVega's annuloplasty in 80 patients (87%) and of valve replacement in 12 patients (13%) from January, 1978, to March, 1988. All of those patients were diagnosed by cardiac catheterization and angiogram, clinical findings and in recent cases, pulsed and color Doppler echocardiography were applied. Eighty-nine of 92 patients (97%) were in NYHA class III or IV before operation. There were 7 early death (8.5%) with DeVega procedure and one death (8.3%) in TVR and late deaths were noted in 3 patients (3.6%) (DeVega's procedure) and one (8.3%) in TVR. Two patients after DeVega procedure at 5 and 6 years were required re-operation of TVR because of recurrent mitral valvular disease. Seventy-seven of 80 survivors were in NYHA class I or II postoperatively. Twenty-seven randomized selected patients after DeVega's annuloplasty were investigated by pulsed and color Doppler echocardiography, 17 of them (63%) had no regurgitation and the remaining 10 patient had mild to moderate regurgitation. This study suggests that DeVega's annuloplasty has a simple and reliable procedure in patients with functional TR and results in excellent hemodynamic and functional effects postoperatively.