Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) affects the quality of life of females with spinal cord injury (SCI), has a negative impact on functional independence and disturbs their psychosocial interaction. Our aim was to assess the efficacy of mid-urethral tapes (MUT) in managing stress urinary incontinence in this population.
Retrospective cohort study.
SCI females with upper motor neuron lesion and urodynamically proven stress or mixed urinary incontinence that was treated with a mid-urethral tape and followed up for at least 12 months.
Mid-urethral tapes such TVT, TOT and mini-Arc. Patient reported outcomes based on the daily use of pads and ICIQ modular questionnaire scores.
The primary endpoint was defined as the success rate of MUT surgery in managing stress incontinence at 12. The secondary endpoints included the improvement rate at 12 months, the complication rates and the need for additional treatments.
38 females were studied. At 12 months the overall patient reported success rate was 52.6%. 16% reported significant improvement. 68.4% felt the quality of life to improve. Nine patients develop tape related complications (five de novo urgency, one vaginal extrusion, one frequent dysreflexia and one worsening of incontinence).
Mid-urethral tapes are effective in the management of stress urinary incontinence in female patients with spinal cord injury. There are demonstrable improvements in both continence and quality of life.
The journal of spinal cord medicine. 2017 Oct 27 [Epub ahead of print]
Vasileios I Sakalis, Michael S Floyd, Philippa Caygill, Chloe Price, Ben Hartwell, Peter J Guy, Melissa C Davies
a Department of Urology , Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust , Salisbury , UK., b Duke of Cornwall Spinal treatment center , Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust , Salisbury , UK.