{"id":6468,"date":"2026-02-03T05:10:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/?page_id=6468"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:05:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T17:05:51","slug":"tricuspid-valve-still-forgotten-2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/tricuspid-valve-still-forgotten-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Tricuspid Valve Still the \u201cForgotten Valve\u201d in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The debilitating symptoms of tricuspid valve regurgitation significantly impact millions of adults each year. Yet, compared to the attention given to the aortic and mitral valves, the tricuspid valve has historically been an afterthought, with little effort devoted to fixing it because of surgical complications. Instead, most cardiologists and surgeons chose medical management to relieve symptoms rather than repair or replacement, hence it has long been known as the \u201cForgotten Valve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that transcatheter interventions may give tricuspid valve patients a unique minimally-invasive option for treatment. In a recent interview at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Adam Pick spoke with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/interventional-cardiologist\/dr-Aakriti-Gupta-Los+Angeles-California.php\">Dr. Aakriti Gupta<\/a>, a leading interventional cardiologist specializing in minimally invasive heart valve therapies using small catheters rather than open-heart surgery.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cfzqH-2O7D8?rel=0&amp;si=iMPs6mrLcGCQYEbH\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Tricuspid Valve Disease Innovation<\/h2>\n<p>Here are the key insights shared by Dr. Gupta:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is the tricuspid valve still considered the \u201cForgotten Valve?\u201d Dr. Gupta said, \u201cIt\u2019s a great question, and I would say in 2026, it\u2019s no longer the forgotten valve. One of the reasons it was forgotten was because the only available option for treatment was open-heart surgery.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6472 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/tricuspid-valve-drawing.jpg\" alt=\"Tricuspid Valve Drawing\" width=\"650\" height=\"362\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why surgery may not be the best option for many patients with tricuspid valve disease. \u201cPatients who have tricuspid valve regurgitation as their primary valve problem are often old and frail and not excellent surgical candidates,\u201d said Dr. Gupta. \u201cThey also have poor heart function, and surgeons are not thrilled about taking them to surgery.\u201d Dr. Gupta explained that because patients were often not considered good surgical candidates, their tricuspid valve regurgitation was often poorly diagnosed, untreated, and would just go by the wayside.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6473 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/tricuspid-valve-regurgitation-drawing.jpg\" alt=\"Tricuspid Valve Regurgitation Drawing\" width=\"650\" height=\"364\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Catheter-based treatments can be a \u201cgame-changer\u201d for patients with tricuspid valve disease. \u201cThe revolution we have seen in catheter-based valve treatment over the past couple of decades has made it possible to treat the tricuspid valve in a transcatheter fashion with just a catheter through a vein in the groin instead of open-heart surgery.\u201d Dr. Gupta explained that there are now two FDA-approved catheter-based treatments. \u201cOne option is transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement with the EVOQUE device. There\u2019s another called transcatheter valve repair, which is the TriClip device.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6474 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/..\/Images\/triclip.jpg\" alt=\"TriClip Device Tricuspid Valve\" width=\"650\" height=\"363\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How to determine which patients will benefit from these catheter-based treatments. \u201cWe often have a screening process where we do detailed imaging of the valve and can see whether a patient is a good candidate. Based on the imaging from an echocardiogram and a CT scan, we can determine the best treatment options.\u201d Dr. Gupta went on to explain that, since it is minimally invasive, there is less risk than with open-heart surgery, and most patients go home the day after the procedure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fixing tricuspid valve regurgitation results in symptom relief. \u201cAfter reducing the leakage in the tricuspid valve, patients often come to our clinic a few months later and say they breathe better, walk better, and have less leg swelling.\u201d Dr. Gupta also said they see favorable heart remodeling and improvements in patients\u2019 kidney and liver function. She explained that while they haven\u2019t seen an impact on longevity, survival, or even heart failure hospitalization rates, patients who\u2019ve had these transcatheter interventions to relieve tricuspid regurgitation feel better. \u201cThat is what the TRISCEND II Trial showed, and that led to the FDA approval of this device.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Thanks Dr. Gupta and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center!<\/h2>\n<p>On behalf of all the patients in our community, thank you, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/interventional-cardiologist\/dr-Aakriti-Gupta-Los+Angeles-California.php\">Dr Aakriti Gupta<\/a>, for everything you and your team are doing at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California!<\/p>\n<p>Related links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/interventional-cardiologist\/dr-Aakriti-Gupta-Los+Angeles-California.php\">Find out more at Dr. Aakriti Gupta\u2019s Interactive Surgeon Profile<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/tavr-aortic-regurgitation-aakriti-gupta-md\/\">Ask Dr. Gupta: What About TAVR for Aortic Regurgitation?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin,<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n<p>P.S. For the deaf and hard-of-hearing members of our patient community, we have provided a written transcript of our interview with Dr. Gupta below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"cms.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"class_list":["post-6468","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-tricuspid-valve"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6468"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6523,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6468\/revisions\/6523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}