Correlation between clinical examination and perineal ultrasound in women treated for pelvic organ prolapse

Abstract

IntroductionLifetime risk of surgery for female pelvic organ prolapse (FPOP) is estimated at 10 to 20%. Prolapse assessment is mostly done by clinical examination. Perineal ultrasound is easily available and performed to evaluate and stage FPOP. This study's aim is to evaluate the agreement between clinical examination by POP-Q and perineal sonography in women presenting pelvic organ prolapse. Materials and methodsWe carried out a prospective study from December 2015 to March 2018 in the gynecologic department of a teaching hospital. Consecutive woman requiring a surgery for pelvic organ prolapse were included. All women underwent clinical examination by POP-Q, perineal ultrasound with measurements of each compartment descent, levator hiatus area and posterior perineal angle. They also answered several functional questionnaires (PFDI 20, PFIQ7, EQ-5D and PISQ12) before and after surgery. Data for clinical and sonographic assessments were compared with Spearman's test and correlation with functional questionnaires was tested. Results82 women were included. We found no significant agreement between POP-Q and sonographic measures of bladder prolapse, surface of the perineal hiatus or perineal posterior angle. There was a significant improvement of most of the functional scores after surgery. DiscussionOur study does not suggest correlation between clinical POP-Q and sonographic assessment of bladder prolapse, hiatus surface or perineal posterior angle. Ultrasound datasets were limited by an important number of missing data resulting in a lack of power.