The tension-free vaginal tape procedure in women with previous failed stress incontinence surgery.

PURPOSE

The tension-free vaginal tape procedure is an increasingly popular choice for treating female urinary stress incontinence. This ongoing, prospective, open label study presents the results of tension-free vaginal tape surgery at 1 year in women who have previously undergone unsuccessful stress incontinence surgery.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 67 women with previous failed surgery for stress urinary incontinence underwent the tension-free vaginal tape procedure. Treatment outcome was categorized as cure, significant improvement or failure based on cystometry findings and urinary pad loss results at 3 months of followup, and on subjective questioning at 3 months and 1 year of followup.

RESULTS

At 12 months 54 women (81%) were cured, 4 (6%) were significantly improved and 9 (13%) were no better. No serious morbidity was noted after the procedure.

CONCLUSIONS

The tension-free vaginal tape procedure provides the prospect of a success rate similar to that of a conventional sling procedure in patients with previous failed surgery. It has a low rate of operative complications and postoperative morbidity.