Experience with a bone anchor sling for treating female stress urinary incontinence: outcome at 30 months.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the clinical and video-urodynamic outcome in women with by stress urinary incontinence (SUI) treated with a bone-anchored pubovaginal sling.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

The study included 70 women with SUI (as evaluated by a clinical examination, a voiding questionnaire, a short pad-test and video-urodynamics) who had a bone-anchor sling procedure, with or without cystocele repair, from January 1999 to December 2001; they were re-evaluated after a long-term follow-up (mean 30 months).

RESULTS

The long-term outcome showed a success rate of > 95%; the clinical and video-urodynamic findings showed good functional and anatomical results, and an improvement in voiding performance in most patients. There was a low incidence of complications during and after surgery (2.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

This approach gives, in highly selected patients, a high success rate and low incidence of complications. The technique is easy to learn and the costs to the financing bodies and public healthcare are low, making it a candidate for an alternative procedure to the standard techniques for SUI.