The changes of storage symptoms after tension-free vaginal tape procedures in stress urinary incontinence patients

Purpose: We evaluated the changes of storage symptoms after tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) procedures in stress urinary incontinence (SUI) patients, and we investigated the factors predicting the changes of storage symptoms. Materials and Methods: From January 2000 to August 2003, 713 patients with SUI were operated on with using suburethral sling procedures (TVT). A follow-up study was conducted for over a one year period with 495 patients. We analyzed the one year outcomes of TVT surgeries and the changes of storage symptoms after TVT. Results: The rates of cure and improvements at one year after TVT were 80.8% and 12.3%, respectively. At one month after TVT, 59 of 180 (33%) patients with urgency before TVT were improved, and 60 of 72 (83.6%) patients with urgency incontinence before TVT were improved. In 86 of 180 (47.8%) patients, the urgency is improved, and in 65 of 72 (90.1%) patients, the urgency incontinence disappeared at one year after TVT procedure. Urgency developed in 65 of the 243 (26.9%) patients who had no urgency before TVT, but after 1 year, only 28 (10.2%, 25/243) these 243 patients had urgency. 102 (31.6%) of the patients with frequency before TVT were improved after TVT. Of the 92 patients with nocturia, 22 (23.4%) patients were improved. There were no statically significant factors predicting the changes of the storage symptoms. Conclusions: The total improvement rate (cure+improvements) of stress urinary incontinence was 93.1% at one year. We can expect the improvement of urgency (47.1%) and urgency incontinence (90.1%) after TVT procedures, but not improvement of the frequency and nocturia.