Left ventricular assist device implantation with concomitant tricuspid valve repair: is there really a benefit?

From the first epidemiological reports to this day, heart failure (HF) remains one of the leading causes of death in the developed world (1). In stage D of HF, after exhaustion of medical therapy, either cardiac transplantation or mechanical circulatory support (MCS) is recommended (2). Owing to a shortage of donor hearts, there has been a continuous increase of MCS implantations in the last decade. From all long-term MCS, devices over 95% are the left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) (3). Besides LVAD implantation, patients often need concomitant surgical procedures for additional cardiac structural abnormalities, such as coronary bypass surgery, heart valve surgery or other procedures