Transcatheter Valve Replacement in Severe Tricuspid Regurgitation

BackgroundSevere tricuspid regurgitation is associated with disabling symptoms and an increased risk of death. Data regarding outcomes after percutaneous transcatheter tricuspid-valve replacement are needed.MethodsIn this international, multicenter trial, we randomly assigned 400 patients with severe symptomatic tricuspid regurgitation in a 2:1 ratio to undergo either transcatheter tricuspid-valve replacement and medical therapy (valve-replacement group) or medical therapy alone (control group). The hierarchical composite primary outcome was death from any cause, implantation of a right ventricular assist device or heart transplantation, postindex tricuspid-valve intervention, hospitalization for heart failure, an improvement of at least 10 points in the score on the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire overall summary (KCCQ-OS), an improvement of at least one New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class, and an improvement of at least 30 m on the 6-minute walk distance. A win ratio was calculated for the primary outcome by comparing all possible patient pairs, starting with the first event in the hierarchy.ResultsA total of 267 patients were assigned to the valve-replacement group and 133 to the control group. At 1 year, the win ratio favoring valve replacement was 2.02 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.56 to 2.62; P<0.001). In comparisons of patient pairs, those in the valve-replacement group had more wins than the control group with respect to death from any cause (14.8% vs. 12.5%), postindex tricuspid-valve intervention (3.2% vs. 0.6%), and improvement in the KCCQ-OS score (23.1% vs. 6.0%), NYHA class (10.2% vs. 0.8%), and 6-minute walk distance (1.1% vs. 0.9%). The valve-replacement group had fewer wins than the control group with respect to the annualized rate of hospitalization for heart failure (9.7% vs. 10.0%). Severe bleeding occurred in 15.4% of the valve-replacement group and in 5.3% of the control group (P=0.003); new permanent pacemakers were implanted in 17.4% and 2.3%, respectively (P<0.001).ConclusionsFor patients with severe tricuspid regurgitation, transcatheter tricuspid-valve replacement was superior to medical therapy alone for the primary composite outcome, driven primarily by improvements in symptoms and quality of life. (Funded by Edwards Lifesciences; TRISCEND II ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT04482062.)