A ten-year experience in the evaluation and management of patients with stress urinary incontinence.

The surgical procedures used, the complications encountered and the results obtained in 549 patients with urinary stress incontinence with or without prolapse and 50 patients with prolapse without urinary stress incontinence are presented. Incontinence was cured in 347 patients, improved in 126, unchanged in 66 and worsened in ten. Seven patients operated on for uterine prolapse developed urinary incontinence after surgery. The overall recurrence of SUI was 12.75%. The introduction of suprapubic bladder drainage has practically eliminated postoperative urinary tract infections and reduced the length of hospitalization from 9.1 to 7.2 days. My experience in 214 patients with suprabpubic drainage demonstratedthe superiority of the Ansari method over the cystocath. The addition of Cantor's bladder neck plication improved the results (cured plus improved) from 80% to 100% in the Marshall-Marchetti-Krantz operation and from 81% to 86% when the Marshall-Marchetti-Krantz operation was associated with an abdominal hysterectomy.