Transcatheter tricuspid valve implantation with the Cardiovalve system

Transcatheter tricuspid valve interventions: Current devices and clinical evidence

The tricuspid valve is known as "the forgotten valve". Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a highly prevalent valvular heart disease. TR is often late in the course of the disease when it becomes symptomatic, often being a marker of late-stage chronic heart failure with a poor prognosis and high mortality rate at long-term follow-up. Despite the clear correlation between TR and mortality, most TR patients are under-treated. Neither pharmacologic nor surgical treatment demonstrates a significant survival benefit. Isolated tricuspid valve surgery has the highest mortality rate of all valve surgeries. Therefore, there is an urgent clinical need for minimally invasive therapies to meet the needs of patients with TR. In recent years, a variety of transcatheter tricuspid valve interventions representing less invasive alternatives to surgery have shown promising results, which bring hope to patients with severe TR. The purpose of this review is to provide a complete and updated overview on current transcatheter tricuspid valve interventions and clinical evidence.

New Approaches to Assessment and Management of Tricuspid Regurgitation Before Intervention

Severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a progressive condition associated with substantial morbidity, poor quality of life, and increased mortality. Patients with TR commonly have coexisting conditions including congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, chronic lung disease, atrial fibrillation, and cardiovascular implantable electronic devices, which can increase the complexity of medical and surgical TR management. As such, the optimal timing of referral for isolated tricuspid valve (TV) intervention is undefined, and TV surgery has been associated with elevated risk of morbidity and mortality. More recently, an unprecedented growth in TR treatment options, namely the development of a wide range of transcatheter TV interventions (TTVI) is stimulating increased interest and referral for TV intervention across the entire medical community. However, there are no stepwise algorithms for the optimal management of symptomatic severe TR before TTVI. This article reviews the contemporary assessment and management of TR with addition of a medical framework to optimize TR before referral for TTVI.

Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients Screened for Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Replacement: The TriACT Registry

BACKGROUND

Transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (TTVR) abolishes tricuspid regurgitation (TR) and has emerged as a definitive treatment for TR.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this multicenter, observational study was to determine the clinical characteristics and short-term outcomes of patients with TR screened for TTVR.

METHODS

Patients underwent TTVR screening at 7 centers on a compassionate-use basis. The primary endpoints were NYHA functional class and TR grade at 30-day follow-up. Secondary endpoints included all-cause mortality, heart failure hospitalization, technical success, and reasons for TTVR screening failure.

RESULTS

A total of 149 patients (median age 79 years [Q1-Q3: 72-84 years], 54% women) underwent TTVR screening. The TTVR screening failure rate was 74%, mainly related to large tricuspid annular diameter. Patients undergoing TTVR (n = 38) had significant functional improvements (NYHA functional class I or II from 21% to 68%; P < 0.001), with TR ≤1+ in 97% at 30-day follow-up (P < 0.001 from baseline). Technical success was achieved in 91%, with no intraprocedural mortality or conversion to surgery. At 30-day follow-up, mortality was 8%, heart failure hospitalization 5%, major bleeding 18%, and reintervention 9%. Patients who failed screening for TTVR and subsequently underwent "bailout" transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (n = 26) had favorable outcomes (NYHA functional class I or II from 27% to 58%; P < 0.001), with TR ≤1+ in 43% at 30-day follow-up (P < 0.001 from baseline).

CONCLUSIONS

This first real-world report of TTVR screening demonstrated a high screening failure rate, mainly related to large tricuspid annular diameter. Patients undergoing TTVR had superior TR reduction and symptom alleviation compared with bailout tricuspid transcatheter edge-to-edge repair, at the cost of greater procedural complications.

Tricuspid Valve Regurgitation: Current Understanding and Novel Treatment Options

Managing patients with severe symptomatic tricuspid regurgitation (TR) remains extremely challenging, with a lack of consensus on when and how to treat it. Tricuspid valve pathology has been disregarded for a very long time because of the established belief that treating left-sided heart diseases would lead to the resolution or significant improvement of TR. Initially considered benign, severe TR has been found to be a strong predictor of prognosis. Despite the increasing prevalence and the disabling nature of this disease, the great majority of patients with clinically significant TR have seldom been considered for structural interventions. Numerous surgical and transcatheter treatment options are now available; however, optimal timing and procedural selection remain crucial aspects influencing outcomes. According to recent evidence in the literature, early referral is associated with good short and long-term outcomes, and various predictors of favorable outcomes following either surgical or transcatheter treatment have been identified. Evaluation by a multidisciplinary heart team with expertise in tricuspid valve disease is of paramount importance to identify adequate treatment for every patient.

Transcatheter Tricuspid Valve Replacement: Illustrative Case Reports and Review of State-of-Art

Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is one of the most common heart valve diseases, associated a with poor prognosis since significant TR is associated with an increased mortality risk compared to no TR or mild regurgitation. Surgery is the standard treatment for TR, although it is associated with high morbidity, mortality, and prolonged hospitalization, particularly in tricuspid reoperation after left-sided surgery. Thus, several innovative percutaneous transcatheter approaches for repair and replacement of the tricuspid valve have gathered significant momentum and have undergone extensive clinical development in recent years, with favorable clinical outcomes in terms of mortality and rehospitalization during the first year of follow-up. We present three clinical cases of transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement in an orthotopic position with two different innovative systems along with a review of the state-of-the-art of this emergent topic.

Transcatheter Tricuspid Interventions: Past, Present, and Future

Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) etiologies include primary valve pathology or secondary (functional) regurgitation from increased hemodynamic pressure or volume on the right side of the heart. Patients with severe TR have a worse prognosis independent of all other variables. Surgical treatment for TR has mostly been limited to patients undergoing concomitant left-sided cardiac surgery. The results and durability of surgical repair or replacement are not well defined. For patients with significant and symptomatic TR, transcatheter techniques would be beneficial, but these techniques and devices have been slow to develop. Much of the delay is a result of neglect and challenges in defining the symptoms associated with TR. In addition, the anatomic and physiological aspects of the tricuspid valve apparatus present unique challenges. Several devices and techniques are in various phases of clinical investigation. This review highlights the current landscape of transcatheter tricuspid interventions and future opportunities. It is imminent that these therapies become commercially available and widely adopted to have a significant positive impact on millions of patients that have been neglected.

Transcatheter tricuspid valve intervention: to repair or to replace?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The burden of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is high in the aging population, almost 4% in the age group over 75 have moderate or more TR. This carries a poor prognosis and an increased incidence of mortality, prolonged hospitalization, and rehospitalization in symptomatic patients with severe TR is observed. Percutaneous tricuspid valve intervention has emerged as a viable therapeutic option, with an increasingly large toolbox of both tricuspid repair and replacement devices. The optimal strategy, timing and patient selection for transcatheter intervention are yet to be determined. This review focuses on the current strengths and limitations of transcatheter tricuspid repair vs. replacement, drawing on lessons learned from surgery.

RECENT FINDINGS

Early outcome studies have been published in the last 2 years for many of the new percutaneous tricuspid valve devices. We have summarized these results and compared them to surgical tricuspid valve repair and replacement. We found that surgical data shows a tendency to better outcome with tricuspid valve repair compared to replacement. For transcatheter interventions studies comparing repair and replacement are lacking but both interventions show good procedural success rates and are efficient in reducing the grade of tricuspid regurgitation.

SUMMARY

Transcatheter tricuspid valve interventions offer a safe and effective alternative to tricuspid surgery or medical therapy. The decision between valve replacement and repair should be based on patient anatomy, operator experience and device availability until head-to-head comparison of different devices are available.

Transcatheter tricuspid valve interventions: Current status and future perspectives

The development of transcatheter therapies to treat valvular heart diseases has changed the rules of the game, particularly in the case of aortic stenosis and mitral regurgitation. In the last years, the tricuspid valve has also been the focus of these percutaneous techniques for several reasons: (1) tricuspid regurgitation is a frequent disease associated with poor clinical outcomes in spite of medical treatment, leading to end-stage right ventricular heart failure, (2) surgical tricuspid valve repair or replacement has been the treatment of choice for patients with tricuspid valve disease, but high mortality rates for isolated surgical tricuspid valve intervention have been reported in the literature, and (3) most patients with tricuspid pathology are ultimately denied cardiac surgery because of their comorbidity burden. Thus, in this context the development of less invasive catheter-based therapies would be of high clinical relevance. The present review provides an overview regarding the framework of chronic tricuspid regurgitation transcatheter therapeutic options, summarizes the transcatheter systems under clinical use or clinical evaluation with their technical features, and describes the updated current evidence in this challenging and evolving field.

Challenges and future perspectives of transcatheter tricuspid valve interventions: adopt old strategies or adapt to new opportunities?

Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a highly prevalent valvular heart disease and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and death at long-term follow-up. Functional TR accounts for over 90% of TR and is mainly due to annular or right ventricular dilatation. Most often, TR is observed in patients with left-sided valvular heart disease (with or without previous surgical correction) and pulmonary hypertension. Isolated TR is less frequent, though burdened by high surgical mortality. This, together with an incomplete understanding of the disease, has brought to a significant undertreatment in spite of the growing evidence of the impact of severe TR on mortality. Moreover, uncertainties about the appropriate timing for intervention and the predictors of procedural success have contributed to limit TR treatment. Transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement or repair interventions represent novel and less invasive alternatives to surgery and have shown early promising results. The purpose of this review is to provide a complete and updated overview of TR pathology with a special focus on current percutaneous treatment options, future challenges and directions.