Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and complications of abdominal sacrocolpopexy in the treatment of vaginal vault prolapse.
Design: Review article.
Setting: Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Charles University 2nd Medical Faculty and Teaching Hospital Motol, Prague.
Methods: Review from biomedical database Medline from 1960 till 2006. The articles were found under the key words: vaginal vault prolaps, abdominal sacrocolpopexy, effectiveness, complications, urinary incontinence, female sexual dysfunctions.
Results: The effectiveness of surgery is getting near to 100 percent in the smaller groups between 11 and 21 women. The larger groups are presenting greater success rate variability from 85 to 97 percent. The studies with up to 2 years of follow up are giving representative results of the effectiveness of surgery. Prolapse recurrence and cystocele, rectocele, enterocele and stress urinary incontinence occurrance belong among the characteristic failure signs. Studies evaluating abdominal sacrocolpopexy argue low incidence of complications. Complications connected with surgery can be divided to intraoperative and early and late postoperative. Bleeding from injured medial sacral artery, cystotomy, enterotomy and ureterotomy are the most common intraoperative complications. Wound infection, ileus and urinary tract infection are the most often early postoperative complications. Stress urinary incontinence, anterior or posterior vaginal wall descent, recurrence of vaginal vault prolapse and mesh erosion through vaginal wall are characteristic late postoperative complications.
Conclusions: Abdominal sacrocolpopexy can be a method of choice in the treatment of vaginal vault prolapse, mainly because of the low morbidity and high success rate. Polypropylene mesh is the prefered suspension structure but the accurate surgical technique is the most important for the abdominal sacrocolpopexy success and safety.