Adherence to the Minimum Data Set Suggested by American Urological Association Guidelines for the Surgical Treatment of Stress Urinary Incontinence.

OBJECTIVE

To assess contemporary adherence to the minimum data set proposed for future publication in the 1997 American Urological Association (AUA) guidelines on the surgical management of female SUI in 1997. guidelines among recently published literature.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

We reviewed all publications included in the AUA/SUFU Surgical Treatment of Female SUI Guidelines and included articles that reported surgical outcomes for SUI treatment. They were abstracted for the reporting of the previously defined 22 data points. Each article received a compliance score as a percent of parameters met out of the 22 data points.

RESULTS

Three hundred eighty articles from the 2017 AUA guidelines search, in combination with an independent updated literature search were included. There was an average compliance score of 62%. The best compliance rates for individual data points were: defined criteria for success (95%) and patient history (97%). The lowest compliance rates were: minimum follow-up >48 months (8%) and post-treatment micturition diary (17%). There was no difference between mean rates of reporting for articles before and after the SUFU/AUA 2017 guidelines (61% pre vs 65% post).

CONCLUSION

Adherence to reporting the most recent minimum standards in the current SUI literature is largely suboptimal. This apparent lack of compliance may suggest a role for a more stringent editorial review process, or alternatively that the prior suggested data set was overly burdensome and/or irrelevant.