Surgical Complications and Medium-Term Outcome Results of Tension-Free Vaginal Tape: A Prospective Study of 313 Consecutive Patients

Ishai Levin, Asnat Groutz, Ronen Gold, David Pauzner, Joseph B. Lessing, David Gordon*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

120 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: A prospective study was undertaken to examine the incidence of surgical complications and medium-term outcomes of tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) surgery in a large, heterogeneous group of stress-incontinent women. Methods: Surgery was tailored according to preoperative clinical and urodynamic findings: stress-incontinent women underwent TVT surgery, whereas those with concomitant urogenital prolapse underwent combined TVT and prolapse repair. Post-operatively the patients were scheduled for evaluation at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months, and annually thereafter. All underwent urodynamics at 3 months post-operatively. Results: Three hundred and thirteen consecutive patients were prospectively studied. The mean follow-up period was 21.4 ± 13.5 months. Sixteen (5.1%) cases of intravesical passage of the prolene tape occurred in our series, two of which were diagnosed at 3 and 15 months post-operatively. Eight (2.5%) patients had post-operative voiding difficulties, necessitating catheterization for more than 7 days. However, transvaginal excision of the tape was required in one case only. Vaginal erosion of the tape was diagnosed in four (1.3%) patients, all of whom were successfully treated by local excision of the eroded tape. Outcome analysis was restricted to 241 consecutive patients with at least 12 months of follow-up. Subjectively, 16 (6.6%) patients had persistent mild stress urinary incontinence, although urodynamics revealed asymptomatic sphincteric incontinence in 17 (7%) other patients. De-novo urge incontinence developed post-operatively in 20 (8.3%) patients. Conclusions: The TVT procedure is associated with good medium-term cure rates, however, it is not free of troublesome complications and the patients should be informed accordingly. Only well-trained surgeons, familiar with pelvic anatomy, surgical alternatives, and endoscopic techniques should perform the operation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7-9
Number of pages3
JournalNeurourology and Urodynamics
Volume23
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2004

Keywords

  • Outcome results
  • Stress urinary incontinence
  • Surgery
  • TVT

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