[Quality of life after mid-urethra polypropylene tape sling surgery (IVS, TVT) in female stress urinary incontinence].

Introduction: Urinary incontinence exerts a huge influence on women's quality of life in regard to hygienic problems. The great progress in female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) surgery was introduction of mid-urethra polypropylene sling procedures, which are characterized by very high efficacy, safety and minimal invasiveness. The aim of our study was to assess if functioning of lower urinary tract after minimum 1 year from TVT or IVS procedure has an impact on women's quality of life.

Materials and Methods: Analysis was done by means of King's quality of life questionnaire in Polish version from 1993. One hundred and sixty patients operated because of SUI in II-nd Department of Gynecology in Lublin in years: 1999-2001 were assessed. The mean time relapsed from surgery was 19 +/- 6 months. Eighty women were operated by TVT method (monofilament tape) and eighty by IVS method (multifilament tape. Statistical analysis was done by means of STATISTICA program, version 6. To estimate patient's quality of life according to King's questionnaire the mode value (Mo) and the frequency of mode value (fr Mo) were used in respective questions. The results in both groups were compared by Mann-Whitney test.

Results: Most of patients assessed the general health condition as good (fr Mo = 25; 36.9%). In TVT group Mo value indicated good health condition (fr Mo = 30; 37.5%), whereas in IVS group general health condition was estimated most commonly as satisfactory (fr Mo = 33; 41.25%). In respect to incontinence impact on life in TVT group 37.5% of patients (fr Mo = 30) reported some influence, while in IVS group 50% of women (fr Mo = 40) reported no influence (p = 0.16). Moreover, analysis revealed that in both groups the functioning of lower urinary tract does not influence their normal functioning, social contacts, physical activity, personal life, emotions or sleep.

Conclusion: After modern incontinence surgery (TVT, IVS methods) the majority of patients reported that current bladder symptoms have no negative impact on their quality of life.