Long-term subjective results of tension-free vaginal tape operation for female urinary stress incontinence

Abstract

Urological Survey 795 Editorial CommentWe do not yet have a urethral stent that is ready for broad application. The authors describe their experience with Memotherm. This is a stent that contracts in cold water and expands after being placed in the urethra at body temperature. Removing it is fairly easy after irrigating the urethra with cold water. This is a big improvement over the Urolume stent which is very difficult to extract. Still the results reported herein show that there is still much room for improvement in the design of urethral stents, or that stents hold limited promise in urethral stricture management. Approximately half of the patients required secondary procedures for restenosis or "hyperplastic ingrowth" inside the stent. The true future of stents likely lies in drug-eluting stents or temporary stents acting as scaffolds for engineered tissue ingrowth. Introduction and Hypothesis: The aim of the study was to evaluate the subjective outcome between 1 and 5 years after tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) operation and the need for follow-up. Methods: A prospective questionnaire study was performed including questions about incontinence, urinary tract infection, emptying problems, the wish for a clinical control and the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Short Form (ICIQ-SF). Results: One hundred seventy-three patients were included. There were more patients with subjective recurrent stress incontinence over the years, but ICIQ-SF was unchanged. There was no rise in patients reporting urge incontinence over the years. Only 11.4% of the patients wished for a clinical control at some time. Conclusion: The TVT operation showed a slight degree of subjective deterioration between 1 and 5 years after the operation; however, the ICIQ-SF was unchanged. There seems to be no need for long-term follow-up at the operating department.

Follow‐up of the tension‐free vaginal tape operation in everyday practice

“…The patients who were scheduled for clinical control seemed well selected. A previous study has shown that there is no need for clinical control after a normal control three months after the operation .…”

Recent Developments in the Surgical Management of Urinary Stress Incontinence

“…In the past 3 years, one multicenter, randomized, controlled trial and seven prospective cohort studies have been published analyzing the outcome of the retropubic/TVT procedures [13,[15][16][17][18][19][20]. These published prospective studies of the retropubic TVT are of 30 to 173 women with 5 to 10 years follow-up (REFS).…”

Incontinence and Chronic Illness

“…Glavind et al (29) hicieron seguimiento de largo término (1-5 años) a la operación de cabestrillo suburetral (tensión free vaginal tape®) en 173 pacientes y encontraron que a pesar de algunas quejas, las pruebas objetivas mostraron resultados definitivos de mejoría.…”