Modified urethral sling for the treatment of genuine stress incontinence and latent incontinence

The results of 143 women who underwent a modified urethral sling using Marlex mesh for the correction of stress urinary incontinence and latent stress incontinence, as diagnosed by clinical and urodynamic testing, are examined. The overall success rate for the surgical correction of genuine stress urinary incontinence was 99% during a median follow-up time of 1 year (range 0.12–4 years). There was a 12% postoperative incidence of varying degrees of genital prolapse. Difficulty with voiding resulting in the need for self-catheterization occurred in 17% of patients in the first 6 weeks, but only 2.8% were needing self-catheterizing after 1 year. There was a difference in peak flow preoperatively compared with 1 year postoperatively (20.5 ml/s v 15.7 ml/s, P=0.0003). Patients with a normal peak flow preoperatively (>20 ml/s) were more compromised at 1 year postoperatively (28 ml/s preoperatively, 18.4 ml/s postoperatively, P=0.00001), than women with an abnormal preoperative flow (<20 ml/s), (13.2 ml/s preoperatively, 13.5 ml/s postoperatively). Whether the operation was done for overt or latent stress incontinence did not affect postoperative flow results. It was not possible to predict by preoperative uroflow testing which patients were likely to need intermittent self-catheterization postoperatively. One year after surgery there were no significant alterations in bladder capacity (CMG) or urethral pressure profile measurements. There were no statistically significant changes in uroflow patterns when comparing primary and secondary surgical groups.