title: Transobturator suburethral tape in the treatment of stress urinary incontinence: efficacy and quality of life after 5 year follow up.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a highly prevalent dysfunction in middle-aged and elderly women. One recent technique places a sub-urethral tape passed through the transobturator foramen. Efficacy and quality of life were assessed after five years of treatment with the transobturator technique in women suffering SUI. This evaluation followed a previous control at the first year post-intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-three women were assessed five years after operation with the transobturator technique. Additionally, twenty-nine women of these women had undergone pelvic floor reconstruction due to different forms of genital prolapse. Quality of life (QoL) was assessed by the Urogenital Distress Inventory-6 (UDI-6) and the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7 (IIQ-7) tests.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjective and objective cure or improvement, complications, and changes in QoL.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty women (79%) remained cured, as assessed by the cough test. Eighteen women (28%) reported urine leakage during physical activity. These objective and subjective data were worse than those reported at the one-year follow-up. De novo urge urinary incontinence was reported by 11 women or 17%. Nine of these women had undergone additional pelvic floor surgery. The QoL tests confirmed that cure or improvement was achieved in 78% (49) (UDI-6) and 79% (50) (IIQ-7) of the women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The transobturator tape procedure resulted in acceptable rates of efficacy after five years. Moreover, QoL tests showed cure or improvement in almost four of five women. Nonetheless, women should be informed of the risk of de novo urinary urgency incontinence and the progressive loss of efficacy with time.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Dr Peset, Valencia, Spain. patricia@comv.es
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cañete
authors.forename: Ester
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.forename: Santiago
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Domingo
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cano
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008875:Middle Aged; D056887:Pelvic Organ Prolapse / Q000601:surgery; D011788:Quality of Life; D012008:Recurrence; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D053825:Suburethral Slings / Q000009:adverse effects; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014550:Urinary Incontinence, Stress / Q000601:surgery*; D053202:Urinary Incontinence, Urge / Q000209:etiology