Surgical Treatment of Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Abstract

The human being is the only mammal capable of walking and simultaneously maintaining an upright position. This fact, implies somewhat unfavorable repercussions for the pelvic region that must support the weight of the abdominal organs. A prime example of the aforementioned adverse effects of the standing position are pelvic organ prolapses (POP). POP surgery is an increasingly important therapeutic aspect in clinical practice due to the aging of our population, and is increasingly prevalent as a therapeutic option. Surgical techniques can be performed using an abdominal or vaginal approach, depending on the medical history, physical examination, and experience of the surgeon. Laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy is an adequate therapeutic option with a high success rate in 80–100% of cases. However, this technique is not always appropriate, especially for patients who are at high risk for anesthesia, a multi-operated abdomen, or in recurrent prolapse. In these cases, a vaginal approach offers an interesting surgical alternative. In this review, we added our experience with transvaginal single-incision mesh under locoregional anesthesia for correction of female POP. We retrospectively analyzed 78 patients showing a success rate of 92% after more than 12 months of follow up. Transvaginal mesh was developed to maintain the advantage of a vaginal procedure, while reducing the risk of recurrent prolapse compared to native tissue repair and simplifying the surgery compared to sacrocolpopexy.