The prospective comparison of the clinical effectiveness and the complication rate of retropubic (IVS-02) and transobturator (IVS-04) midurethral slings in the treatment of female stress urinary incontinence.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was the prospective comparison of clinical efficacy and safety of retropubic (IVS-02) and transobturator suburethral tape techniques (IVS-04) in the treatment of female stress urinary incontinence.
Material and methods: From January 2003 to June 2004, 145 patients with uro-dynamically proven stress urinary incontinence underwent surgical treatment (IVS-02 or IVS-04). During pretreatment work-up, all patients had under-gone full clinical and urodynamic evaluation. Patients with mixed, urge incontinence and the advanced urogenital prolapse (POPQ scale > 2) were excluded from the study.
Results: Patients clinical characteristics and urodynamic parameters were comparable between the analyzed groups. At one year follow-up, 122 patients (61 in each group) were evaluated in terms of clinical efficacy of the procedure. The total cure (78.7% in IVS-02 vs 70.5% in IVS-04), the improvement (14.7% vs 21.3%) and the failure rates (6.6% vs 8.2%) were similar in both analyzed groups, chi2 = 0.58; (p = 0.75).
Conclusions: The transobturator route for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence appears to be as effective as the retropubic one at one year follow-up. Moreover, the shorter operation time and no need to perform cystoscopy during the surgery make the transoburator route a very attractive alternative to retropubic approach.