title: Five cases of tape erosion after transobturator surgery for urinary incontinence.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Before introducing the transobturator tape into our practice we undertook 52 transobturator tape procedures. The transobturator tape procedures were undertaken with an "outside-in" approach, using nonwoven polypropylene mesh with average pore size of 50 mum.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five cases of vaginal erosions have been identified, 1 complicated by a groin abscess. All cases required further procedures to trim (n = 3), resect (n = 1) or remove (n = 1) the tape. One woman had a tension-free vaginal tape procedure. To date, 3 women remain incontinent.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Possible reasons for the complications include 1) surgical inexperience (unlikely, given that we have undertaken more than 2000 tension-free vaginal tape procedures without similar complication rates); 2) inherent susceptibility of the "hammock" position of the transobturator tape; or 3) the nonwoven polypropylene tape with mesh size of 50 microm itself may predispose to erosion or abscess.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pelvic Floor Disorders and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Magali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Magnus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Birch
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Swaby
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ross
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011126:Polypropylenes; D019736:Prostheses and Implants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D011475:Prosthesis Failure; D013526:Surgical Mesh / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014550:Urinary Incontinence, Stress / Q000601:surgery*; D014621:Vagina / Q000293:injuries*
chemical_list: D011126:Polypropylenes