[Role of transesophageal echocardiography in tricuspid valve repair].

This paper reviews the role of echocardiography in tricuspid valve repair by analyzing the results of three clinical studies. The first investigation was performed for assessing the outcome of two surgical techniques in two groups of patients who underwent De Vega's suture annuloplasty or Carpentier ring implantation. The patients were studied by color Doppler echocardiography after a mean follow-up of 28.7 +/- 11.1 months. The results showed lower degree of tricuspid valve regurgitation in the group of patients who underwent De Vega annuloplasty. The second study demonstrates a new application of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) for optimizing tricuspid valve annuloplasty. Twenty-three patients with moderate to severe tricuspid regurgitation underwent De Vega's annuloplasty. After cardiopulmonary bypass the tension on the suture was adjusted until the surgeon could not feel any regurgitant jet by the intraatrial palpation; subsequently, the tension was further adjusted under guidance of TEE. The data obtained by the traditional palpation were compared with the data obtained by TEE. A significant reduction of residual tricuspid regurgitation was obtained by TEE when compared to the data obtained by intraatrial palpation. The results showed that the use of TEE was able to optimize the De Vega's annuloplasty by reducing residual tricuspid regurgitation. The third study investigated tricuspid valve regurgitation commonly observed after orthotopic cardiac transplantation (HTX). Aim of the study was to assess the degree of regurgitation and its etiology. Twenty-five patients undergoing HTX were studied intraoperatively by TEE. The results showed that tricuspid regurgitation occurs in most patients immediately after HTX; it is correlated to the ratio recipient-donor right atrium; surgical techniques which reduce the recipient atrium may decrease the occurrence and the degree of tricuspid regurgitation. The above mentioned clinical investigations showed a many-sided role of TEE in tricuspid valve repair. It provides not only a useful diagnostic tool for evaluating residual regurgitation, but it may actively guide the surgical procedures and contribute to improve the surgical technique.