OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the safety of transobturator suburethral tape and the efficacy of this technique on symptoms and life quality in the treatment of female stress urinary incontinence.

MATERIAL-METHOD

Twenty-eight patients who were operated for stress urinary incontinence and accepted the postoperative recall at the 6th month were enrolled in the study, from April 2004 to April 2005.Patients’ degree of satisfaction and response to the treatment at 6th month after surgery were questioned. Complications occurred in the intraoperative and postoperative period were documented. Life quality and the degree of complaints were questioned in the beginning and at the 6th month after the surgery. Life quality and the severity of the symptoms were evaluated with Bristol Female Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms questionnaire in the preoperative and postoperative period. Symptoms and alterations in life quality in the beginning and at the end of follow-up period were evaluated with Wilcoxon signed rank test statistically.

RESULTS

In the postoperative 6th month examination, 21 (75%) patients were totally cured; 3 (10,71%) patients were significantly improved. Twenty-three (82, 1%) patients were very satisfied or satisfied with the operation. Although there were no major intraoperative complications, delayed healing or sling protrusion was observed in 3 (10, 7%) patients. Prolonged catheterization exceeding 48 hours was observed in 2 (7, 1%) patients. De novo urgency did not occur in any of the patients, however de novo dysuria occurred in 3 (10, 7%) patients. Positive changes and statistically significant results were obtained in 11 out of 18 questions concerning urinary symptoms, 1 out of 4 questions concerning sexual life and all questions concerning life quality by scoring the Bristol Female Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms questionnaire.

CONCLUSION

Transobturator suburethral tape is a safe and effective technique in the treatment of stress incontinence in short-term. Nevertheless, long-term data is not available. Further randomised control studies are needed to replace of retropubic sling in the treatment of female stress incontinence.

Keywords: Stress incontinence, Transobturatuar tape, complications, life quality