Retropubic versus transobturator MUS: time to revisit?

Excerpt

Synthetic midurethral sling (MUS) operations have become the current standard for surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence in women. The retropubic tension-free vaginal tape was introduced by Ulmsten et al. in 1996 [1], while the transobturator technique was introduced by Delorme in 2001 [2]. Thus, we have 20 and 15 years of accumulated evidence regarding these techniques, respectively. According to the latest Cochrane systematic review [3], the retropubic and transobturator procedures are associated with similar cure rates, both subjective and objective in the short term (≤1 year), the medium term (1–5 years), and even in the long term (>5 years). The relative risks vary between 1 and 0.95. …