Efficacy and quality of life after transobturator tension-free vaginal tape procedure for female stress urinary incontinence

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, tension-free transobturator midurethral sling procedures have been gaining popularity in the surgical management of female stress urinary incontinence (SUI). However, quality of life (QoL) assessment following this new procedure is sparingly reported and requires further investigations for credentialing this intervention as a standard of care for women with SUI. Objective: To evaluate the QoL outcome using King’s Health Questionnaires (KHQ) scale following tension-free transobturator tape procedure. Materials and Methods: We evaluated 31 women with genuine SUI in a tertiary medical teaching hospital for QoL before and after the surgery using KHQ. The responses were analyzed for internal consistency, criterion validity, and improvements in various domains in relation to QoL, which could have been affected by their urinary symptoms. Results: Cronbach’s a statistics indicated good correlation between various items of the KHQ scale before and after surgery (0.88 vs 0.81). The criterion validity of the scale against Sandvik Short Format (SSF) indicated a good agreement between these two scales before intervention and during follow-up (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient: 0.872 vs. 0.638). When it came to various domains of KHQ scale, there were significant improvements in all items (p < 0.0001) except General Health Perception (p = 0.69). There was no procedure-related morbidity. Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that KHQ can be effectively used for assessing QoL after TOT procedures. This procedure is also safe and effective for continence treatment.