Transcatheter Repair for Patients with Tricuspid Regurgitation

Severe tricuspid regurgitation is a debilitating condition that is associated with substantial morbidity and often with poor quality of life. Decreasing tricuspid regurgitation may reduce symptoms and improve clinical outcomes in patients with this disease.

We conducted a prospective randomized trial of percutaneous tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) for severe tricuspid regurgitation. Patients with symptomatic severe tricuspid regurgitation were enrolled at 65 centers in the United States, Canada, and Europe and were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either TEER or medical therapy (control). The primary end point was a hierarchical composite that included death from any cause or tricuspid-valve surgery; hospitalization for heart failure; and an improvement in quality of life as measured with the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ), with an improvement defined as an increase of at least 15 points in the KCCQ score (range, 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better quality of life) at the 1-year follow-up. The severity of tricuspid regurgitation and safety were also assessed.