Surgical results of high grade constriction of tricuspid annulus in DeVega technique for secondary tricuspid regurgitation

Sixty-six patients were operated on by our high degree constriction technique using DeVega tricuspid annuloplasty from 1985 to 1989. They were 20 men and 46 women, age distributed from 28 to 71 (mean 54.5). Preoperative tricuspid annular diameter ranged from 29 mm to 45 mm, average 36.3 mm. Those were constricted to 27 mm in 38 patients, and to 25 mm in 28 patients. Postoperative residual tricuspid regurgitation was observed in only 8.5% of total cases followed up 14 to 55 months. This results were comparable with other reports. We concluded that our tight constriction DeVega method is considered better to prevent postoperative tricuspid regurgitation than ordinary methods.