Introduction. The TVT procedure has been changed the surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The aim of this study was to collect the patient's point of view.
Material: and
Methods: The TVT procedure was performed to treat SUI on 144 consecutive women in our institution between May 1998 and December 2000. We have sent a postal questionnaire to all patients in order to determine subjective results on SUI and post-operative voiding difficulties.
Results: We have obtained 124 responses (86.1% of patients). The median follow-up was 20 months +/- 12 (range 8 to 38 months). The patients were "very satisfied" in 56.5% (n=70), "satisfied" in 34.6% (n=43) and "unsatisfied" in 8.9% of cases (n=11). The functional discomfort about SUI was, on a 0 to 10 visual analog scale, 7.5 +/- 2 preoperatively and 2.2 +/- 2.8 post-operatively. Only 13.7% of patients have SUI postoperatively, and then 86.3% are considered cured. Nevertheless, voiding difficulties are common after this procedure with 31.5% of patients complaining about dysuria. On 96 patients who had had mixed incontinence preoperatively, 45.8% (n=44) complaining about persistent urge symptoms. On 28 patients who had had pure SUI, 28.6% (n=8) complaining about de novo urge symptoms.
Conclusion: The TVT procedure is an efficient treatment of stress urinary incontinence, but with numerous post-operative voiding difficulties. This conclusion justify a precise pre-operative information to the patients.