National BSUG audit of stress urinary incontinence surgery in England

The aim of the British Society of Urogynaecology (BSUG) 2013 audit for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) surgery was to conduct a national clinical audit looking at the intra- and postoperative complications and provide outcomes for these procedures. This audit was supported by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and National Health Service (NHS) England.

Data were collected for all continence procedures performed in 2013 through the BSUG database. All clinicians in England performing SUI surgery were invited to submit data to a central database. Outcomes data for the different continence procedures were collected and included intraoperative and postoperative complications and the change in continence scores at postoperative follow-up Changing trends in stress incontinence surgery were also assessed.

We recorded 4993 urinary incontinence procedures from 177 consultants at 110 centres in England: 94.6% were midurethral slings; 86.7% (4331) were submitted by BSUG members with the remaining 13.3% submitted by non-BSUG members. Postoperative follow-up data were available for 3983 (80%) patients: 92.3% (3676) were very much better/much better postoperatively, and 4806 (96.3%) proceeded with no reported complications. There were 187 cases (3.7%) in which a perioperative complication was recorded. Pain persisting >30 days was reported in 1.9% of all patients.

Surgery for SUI has good outcomes in the short term. Midurethral synthetic slings have been shown to be safe and effective as a treatment option, with >90% being very much/much better at their postoperative follow-up.

International urogynecology journal. 2018 Jul 11 [Epub ahead of print]

Swati Jha, Tim Hillard, Ash Monga, Jonathan Duckett

Department of Urogynaecology, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Jessop Wing, Tree Root Walk, Sheffield, S10 2SF, UK. ., Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Longfleet Road, Poole, Dorset, BH15 2JB, UK., Urogynaecology Unit, University Hospitals Southampton NHS Trust, Tremona Road, Southampton, SO16 6UY, UK., Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medway Hospital, Windmill Rd, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 5NY, UK.