The distribution of different surgical types for female stress urinary incontinence among patients’ age, surgeons’ specialties and hospital accreditations in Taiwan: a descriptive 10-year nationwide study

This study aims to identify the changing trends of different surgical types for female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and the distribution amongst various providers’ characteristics. A total of 17,532 women who had undergone surgery for SUI during 1996–2005 were identified from the National Health Insurance Research Database for analysis. Retropubic urethropexy (RPU) was the most common surgical type (43%), followed by tension-free mid-urethral sling (MUS; 24%), and traditional pubovaginal sling (15%). MUS had an annual growth rate of 20.5%, whilst traditional pubovaginal sling was reduced by 11.3% annually after 2002. RPU was the most common procedure by both gynecologists and urologists. Gynecologists performed more Kelly plications, whereas urologists performed more traditional pubovaginal sling. MUS was more commonly performed in medical centers than in regional and local hospitals. There has been a notable growth and changing trend in various surgical types for female SUI in Taiwan.