Complications after different surgical methods for suburethral implantation of polypropylene slings in women with stress urinary incontinence

Abstract

Objective: to identify the proportion of complications after suburethral implantation of polypropylene slings in women with stress urinary incontinence based on a seven-year experience. Material and Methods. We conducted the analysis of а seven-year experience in various implantation techniques of suburethral slings in 1260 women with stress urinary incontinence: inside-out and outside-in obturator sling fixation; suprapubic sling fixation and non-trocar mini-sling installment. Results. The highest incidence of complications was observed over the first two years after suburethral sling implantation was performed. Subsequently, the proportion of complications declined progressively to the lower limit values of 7-8% in the course of three last years. An incidence of early surgical complications among various suburethral sling implantation techniques had no statistically significant differences. However, after the suprapubic sling implantation, intraoperative and mesh-associated complications prevailed. Conclusion. Our study confirmed that suburethral sling implantation using suprapubic fixation method was associated with a higher incidence of complications and should have been performed exclusively for the target group of the patients, for whom safer surgical procedures were contraindicated.