Results of the tension-free vaginal tape procedure for treatment of female stress urinary incontinence: a 5-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVE

We evaluated the long-term cure rates, surgical complications rates after treatment of urodynamically confirmed primary genuine stress incontinence with tension-free vaginal tape (TVT).

METHODS

We performed a retrospective review of all patients undergoing the TVT procedure over a 5-year period to report intraoperative complication, postoperative complications and subjective cure rates.

RESULTS

TVT was performed on 600 patients under general anesthesia. Among these patients, 563 were followed up for least 5 years; the remaining 47 patients could not be followed up. The mean follow-up interval was 63.1+/-3.1 (range 60-70) months. The mean age of the women was 51.7+/-11.6 years and mean body mass index 31.7+/-3.0 kg/m(2). Sixty-two percent (347) of women underwent the TVT procedure in conjunction with other vaginal surgery, and 38% (216) underwent TVT alone. The subjective analysis of the effect of surgery on the symptom of GSI was that, overall, 86.7% were completely cured, 6.0% were significantly improved and 7.3% found no change in the severity of her incontinence. No major nerve or vessel injury occurred, but 17 patients (3.0%) incurred bladder injury during the surgery. De novo voiding urgency occurred in 36 patients (6.4%). Thirty patients (5.3%) developed voiding problem, of which 19 patients had short-term voiding problem.

CONCLUSION

The TVT procedure is a relatively safe and effective, minimally invasive surgical technique for the treatment of female urinary stress incontinence.