Efficacy of the inside-out tramsobturator tension-free vaginal tape (TVT-ABBREVO) for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence after a 12-month follow-up

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the inside-out tension-free vaginal tape transobturator approach or TVT-Obturator system (TVT-ABBREVO) in women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI). This is a prospective single arm study of women with SUI who underwent a TVT-ABBREVO procedure. The inclusion criterion was a diagnosis of SUI urodynamically proven without detrusor over activity. SUI was defined as involuntary urine leakage with stress in the absence of detrusor over activity with or without intrinsic sphincter deficiency. Before, and 12 months after surgery women received urodynamic test, pelvic examination, and a personal interview using the Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI) and the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ). The primary outcome was the incidence of incontinency through cough stress test during the urodynamic exam. A total of 90 women were included in the analysis. Our analysis showed that the incidence of incontinence through cough stress test during the urodynamic exam was significantly less 12 months after the intervention (100% vs 3%; P-value =0.001). Moreover, we found a significantly improvement of the quality of life measured by UDI score (13±4.5 vs 7.3±2.2 points; P-value 0.01) and IIQ score (14±5.7 vs 8.1 vs 3.1 points; P-value 0.02). No intraoperative complications were noticed. TVT-ABBREVO significantly reduced the incidence of stress urinary incontinence. In the authors’ experience, this technique resulted technically simple and provided high objective and subjective long-term efficacy, a clinically meaningful improvement in patient quality of life, and an excellent safety profile.