Only one in 30 women will suffer a complication that requires a second procedure
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 9, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Only one out of every 30 women who receive a synthetic vaginal mesh sling to treat stress urinary incontinence will suffer a complication that requires a second surgery, according to a decade-long follow-up study of nearly 60,000 Canadian women. The findings were published online Sept. 9 in JAMA Surgery.
Blayne Welk, M.D., an assistant professor of urology at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry in London, Canada, and colleagues tracked the number of Ontario women who needed a follow-up surgery to remove or repair a mesh implant. The study included 59,887 women who underwent the procedure from April 2002 through December 2012.
Overall, 1,307 women — or 2.2 percent — needed a follow-up surgery within an average of about a year after receiving a mesh implant for stress urinary incontinence, the findings showed. By the end of the decade-long study period, there was a 3.29 percent cumulative risk of complications, the investigators found. Patients of “low-volume” surgeons were 37 percent more likely to require a follow-up surgery, when compared to women who received treatment by a surgeon who regularly performs this procedure, the researchers said.
“These findings support the regulatory statements that suggest that patients should be counseled regarding serious complications that can occur with mesh-based procedures for stress urinary incontinence and that surgeons should achieve expertise in their chosen procedure,” the authors write. “Multiple mesh-based procedures for stress urinary incontinence are a novel risk factor associated with an almost five-fold higher rate of mesh removal or revision, and the safety of this practice should be studied further.”
One author disclosed financial ties to Astellas Canada.
Abstract
Full Text
Editorial (subscription or payment may be required)
Copyright © 2015 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
