Female stress incontinence and transobturator tape: outcomes and quality of life

TransObturatorTape (TOT) is a surgical technique for the correction of stress urinary incontinence (SUI). We report our experience about clinical outcomes and quality of life of patients who underwent TOT. We collected clinical and instrumental data about 27 patients who underwent TOT during 2006- 2007, and investigated their quality of life using the King’s Health Questionnaire (KHQ). We analysed data by R (version2.7.0), considering significant p<0.05.Mean age at surgery was 62.81years (range 39- 83), mean BMI was 29.31kg/mq (±7.74). 85.19% of patients were in menopause (73.91% spontaneous). Mean parity was 2.19 (±1.11) and only two women were nulliparous. 44.44% of patients had at least one previous gynaecological intervention (34.62% hysterectomy). Relapse prevalence was 44.44%, correlated with higher (worse) KHQ scores (p<0.05), and affected especially women with a mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) (p0.09) or with a coexistent genital prolapse (p<0.05). TOT improved women quality of life, independently by relapse or by the presence of a MUI (p<0.05). Previous gynaecological interventions, and in particular hysterectomy followed by SUI, resulted protective against symptom relapse.TOT does not resolve urge component in case of MUI and may cause urge incontinence after SUI correction. Anyway, women quality of life results strongly improved by TOT, even in case of relapse.