Long-term follow-up of porcine dermis pubovaginal slings.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Outcomes of xenografts in incontinence surgery are uncommon. Our objective was to report long-term outcomes of women after porcine dermis (PD) bladder neck sling.

METHODS

Seventy women completed a mean follow-up of 62.1 months. "Global cure" equaled SEAPI subjective composite = 0 and visual analog score ≥8. "Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) cure" equaled SEAPI-subjective (S) subset = 0 and negative cough stress test.

RESULTS

The SUI cure rate was 42.9 % and global cure rate was 11.4 %. Perioperative complications were seen in <10 % of women. The mean time to SUI recurrence was 10.4 months, with 30 of 40 women redeveloping SUI <12 months after sling. Twenty women (28.6 %) have since undergone additional anti-incontinence procedures. There was a significant postoperative improvement in SEAPI scores, daily pad use, and quality of life (QOL) indices.

CONCLUSIONS

At long-term follow-up, PD is not a durable material in sling surgery. Although QOL generally improves after surgery, most SUI recurrences occurred soon after surgery.