The Quality of Life after Tension-Free Vaginal Tape and Transobturator Vaginal Tape Inside-Out for the Surgical Treatment of Female Stress Urinary Incontinence

Abstract

Purpose: The change of quality of life following a tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) and transobturator vaginal tape (TVT-O) procedure was investigated in patients with stress urinary incontinence. Materials and Methods: We included 86 women with stress urinary incontinence who underwent the TVT or TVT-O procedure and followed up for at least 1 year. Preoperatively, the patients were evaluated with history taking, physical examination, urodynamics to determine abdominal leak point pressure (ALPP) and preand postoperative quality of life was evaluated by incontinence quality of life questionnaire (I-QoL). The success after operation was defined as the absence of any subjective complaint of leakage. Results: The rate of cure of TVT and TVT-O procedure were 84%, 92% and the rate of improvement of them were 16%, 8%, respectively. Preoperative patient characteristics including uroflowmetric parameters and ALPP were comparable in the two groups. The I-QoL parameters one year after surgery were statistically significant increase in I-QoL scores in each groups. There were no serious or long-term complications related to both procedures. Conclusions: These data suggest that the TVT and TVT-O procedure are effective for treating female stress incontinence and also in the aspect of improving quality. (J Korean Continence Soc 2008;12:58-63)