Vaginal pessary continuation in symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse patients with prior hysterectomy.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the success rate of pessary fitting and continuation rate for symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse (POP) patients with a hysterectomy and to explore potential predictors.

METHODS

In this prospective observational study, 119 symptomatic POP patients with a prior hysterectomy received pessary treatment between April 2015 and February 2019. A successful pessary fitting was defined as a patient who was fitted with a pessary and continued to use it 2 weeks later. Patients with successful pessary fitting were followed until February 2020. Data analysis was performed with t tests, nonparametric tests, chi-square tests, and logistic regression.

RESULTS

The success rate of pessary fitting was 63.2%. A history of POP reconstructive surgery (OR = 2.6, 95% CI 1.0-6.7, P = 0.043) and a short total vaginal length <7.3 cm, (OR = 0.5, 95% CI 0.3-0.9, P = 0.014) were potential risk factors for unsuccessful pessary fitting. A total of 78.1% of the patients continued pessary use for a median duration of 26 months. Among patients who discontinued, 75% ceased within 1 year. Older age (OR = 1.1, 95% CI 1.0-1.2, P = 0.038) and prolapse score improvement at 3 months less than 50% (OR = 2.8, 95% CI 1.1-7.2, P = 0.035) were potential risk factors for discontinuation.

CONCLUSIONS

Pessaries remain a useful approach to treat prolapse in women who had a hysterectomy. Patients with POP reconstructive surgery and total vaginal length<7.3 cm should be informed that they might have lower success rate of pessary fitting. Age and prolapse score improvement at 3 months were potential predictors for continuation.