Clinical Outcome of Transobturator Monarc Procedures for Treating of Women with Stress Urinary Incontinence: The 2-Year Follow Up / 대한비뇨기과학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The transobturator Monarc procedure is a new minimally invasive treatment for female stress urinary incontinence (SUI), and this is known to be safe and convenient because serious complications such as bladder or bowel perforation and vascular injury, which can happen during a tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) procedure, can be avoided and cystoscopic examination is not necessary. We evaluated the 2 year clinical outcome of transobturator Monarc sling procedures for female SUI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: There were 114 women who underwent the transobturator Monarc procedure for SUI at 3 different hospitals of The Catholic University of Korea from December 2003 to February 2004. After 2 years following surgery, all the patients were asked about their voiding symptoms as well as any recurrence by conducting detailed telephone interviews. RESULTS: For the 114 patients, 86 patients (75.4%) stated that they had complete resolution of SUI, and 22 patients (19.3%) stated they were continent with only a small amount of leakage when coughing. The overall success rate of the Monarc procedure was 94.7% (108/114). 36 (64.3%) out of 56 patients who had urgency or urge incontinence before surgery indicated the improvement of their symptoms following surgery. For 62 patients who had frequency, the symptom was improved in 48 patients (77.4%), and for the 44 patients who had nocturia, the symptom was improved in 32 (72.7%). CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrates that the transobturator Monarc procedure is a safe and effective treatment for women with SUI, which is comparable with TVT, and the patients' voiding symptoms can be expected to be improved after the transobturator Monarc procedure as well. However, we do not know how long the improvement of the voiding symptoms will last, and so additional longer term follow-up should be done.