Tension-free vaginal tape for the treatment of urodynamic stress incontinence: Efficacy and adverse effects at 10-year follow-up - Abstract

BACKGROUND:One of the most effective and popular current procedures for the surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is tension-free midurethral slings.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the outcomes of women with retropubic tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) for urodynamic stress incontinence (USI) after 10-yr follow-up.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This was a prospective observational study. Consecutive women with proven USI were treated with TVT. Patients with mixed incontinence and/or anatomic evidence of pelvic organ prolapse were excluded.

INTERVENTION: Standard retropubic TVT.

MEASUREMENTS: Patients underwent preoperative clinical and urodynamic evaluations. During follow-up examinations, women were assessed for subjective satisfaction and objective cure rates. Multivariable analyses were performed to investigate outcomes.

RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: A total of 63 women were included. After 10 yr, 5 patients (8%) were lost or no longer evaluable. The 10-yr subjective, objective, and urodynamic cure rates were 89.7%, 93.1%, and 91.4%, respectively. These rates were stable across the whole study period (p>0.99). De novo overactive bladder was reported by 30.1% and 18.9% of patients at 3-mo and 10-yr follow-up, respectively (p for trend = 0.19). A total of 84.2% of women with detrusor overactivity received antimuscarinic drugs, but 43.8% were nonresponders 12 wk later. At multivariable analysis, maximum detrusor pressure during the filling phase >9cm H2O (hazard ratio [HR]: 16.2; p=0.01) and maximum detrusor pressure during the voiding phase ≤ 29cm H2O (HR: 8.0; p=0.01) were independent predictors for the recurrence of SUI, as well as obesity was for the recurrence of objective SUI (HR: 17.1; p=0.01] and of USI (HR: 8.9; p=0.02), respectively. Intraoperatively, bladder perforation occurred in two cases; no severe bleeding or other complications occurred.

CONCLUSIONS: The 10-yr results of this study seem to demonstrate that TVT is a highly effective option for the treatment of female SUI, recording a very high cure rate with low complications after a 10-yr follow-up.

Written by:
Serati M, Ghezzi F, Cattoni E, Braga A, Siesto G, Torella M, Cromi A, Vitobello D, Salvatore S. Are you the author?
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy.

Reference: Eur Urol. 2012 Jan 28. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1016/j.eururo.2012.01.038

PubMed Abstract
PMID: 22305110