Purpose: We compare the efficacy and morbidity of 373 consecutive women who underwent a vaginal wall sling for stress urinary incontinence due either to anatomical incontinence or intrinsic sphincter deficiency. To our knowledge this series is the largest prospective database on surgical management of stress urinary incontinence in the urological literature.
Materials and methods: Preoperative evaluation included history, voiding diary, physical examination, cystoscopy, pad count and video urodynamic study. Outcome measures included postoperative presence of incontinence secondary to either stress and/or detrusor instability, number of pads used, complications, operating time, length of suprapubic catheterization, length of hospitalization and loss of work days.
Results: A total of 373 consecutive women 18 to 85 years old (mean age 55.7) were followed for a mean of 39.8 months. Of these patients 183 (49%) presented with anatomical incontinence and the remaining 190 (51%) had intrinsic sphincter deficiency. Preoperative detrusor instability was present in 60 (33%) patients with anatomical incontinence and 68 (36%) with intrinsic sphincter deficiency. Postoperatively, 14 patients (4%) had recurrent stress urinary incontinence. De novo detrusor instability and urge incontinence were noted in 30 women (8%), and was persistent in 22 (6%). There was no correlation between the diagnosis of anatomical incontinence or intrinsic sphincter deficiency and persistent stress urinary incontinence or detrusor instability. Daily pad use was decreased from 4.3 to 0.5 and from 4.6 to 0.4, respectively, for patients with anatomical incontinence and intrinsic sphincter deficiency. Operating time, catheter duration, length of hospital stay and days lost from work for patients with anatomical incontinence (33.3 +/- 14.3 minutes, 4.7 +/- 1.1 days, 0.9 +/- 0.7 days and 11.3 +/- 2.9 days, respectively) were similar to patients with intrinsic sphincter deficiency (38.4 +/- 17.8, 4.6 +/- 0.9, 1.1 +/- 0.7, 12.4 +/- 4.7). The most common complications were urinary tract infection (3%), wound infection (4%) and pelvic organ prolapse (7%).
Conclusions: The results of this large database suggest that the vaginal wall sling is effective for the management of stress urinary incontinence. Efficacy, morbidity and reduced hospitalization time were similar for patients with either anatomical incontinence or intrinsic sphincter deficiency and independent of surgeon experience.