Efficacy and safety of robot-assisted AUS implantation surgery in treating severe stress urinary incontinence: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

To investigate the effectiveness and safety of robot-assisted artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) implantation surgery for female patients with severe stress urinary incontinences (SUI) by performing a systematic literature review.

A comprehensive search was carried out across multiple databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science Clarivate, Cochrane library, Medicine and clinicaltrials.gov between inception to March 2022. Studies were included if they met the inclusion criteria and were evaluated by different quality evaluation methods according to study types. P value and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of outcome measures mainly including continence rates, intraoperative and postoperative complication rates were pooled to present the efficacy and safety.

A total of 9 studies with 157 participants were finally included. Eight retrospective and one prospective study met the inclusion criteria with moderate and high evidence levels. The pooled results showed that patients with robot-assisted AUS implantation treatment, presented great continence rate (P=0.83, 95%CI:0.76-0.89) but high complication rate (Intraoperation: 0.21 95%CI:0.11-0.34; Postoperation: 0.20 95%CI: 0.12-0.29). In addition, subgroup analysis of two approaches showed that compared with the posterior approach, the traditional surgical approach had better efficacy and safety.

The results of this study indicated that robot-assisted AUS implantation surgery improved SUI patients' urinary continence, but the complication rates were high, which mainly included intraoperative vaginal and bladder injury and postoperative acute urinary retention. More evidence from prospective studies is needed to provide guidance for clinical practice.

Urology. 2022 Oct 09 [Epub ahead of print]

Chen Yuanzhuo, Peng Liao, Zhang Chi, Xu Shuai, Luo Deyi

Department of Urology, Institute of Urology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, P.R. China., Department of Urology, Institute of Urology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, P.R. China. Electronic address: .