Long-term effects of episiotomy on urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse: a systematic review.

PURPOSE: To focus attention on the long-term effects of episiotomy on urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted including only studies with mean follow-up ≥ 5 years. We searched using combinations of the following keywords and text words: "episiotomy", "perineal laceration", "perineal tear", "perineal damage" and "long term", "long term outcomes", "prolapse", "pelvic organ prolapse", "pelvic floor", "pelvic floor dysfunction", "urinary incontinence", "hysterocele", "cystocele" and "rectocele".

RESULTS

The electronic database search provided a total of 6154 results. After exclusions, 24 studies were included yielding the following results: (1) episiotomy might be detrimental with respect to urinary incontinence symptoms; (2) the relationship between episiotomy and anti-incontinence surgery is not clear; (3) episiotomy does not seem to negatively influence genital prolapse development and might even be protective with respect to prolapse severity and prevalence; (4) episiotomy does not seem to affect genital prolapse surgery rate.

CONCLUSIONS

We did not find evidence for a long-term beneficial effect of episiotomy in the prevention of urinary incontinence symptoms and anti-incontinence surgery. Episiotomy does not seem to negatively influence genital prolapse development and might even be protective with respect to prolapse severity and prevalence without affecting surgery rates.