Tension-free vaginal tape-obturator and tension-free vaginal tape-Secur for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence: a 5-year follow-up randomized study

Abstract Objective Single-incision slings were developed to overcome the complications related to retropubic and trans-obturator tapes. TVT-Secur was the first of this kind of devices to be marketed and yielded contrasting results. Aim of this non-inferiority study is to report the 5-year follow-up of a randomized, single-blind, controlled trial comparing TVT-O to TVT-Secur. Study design Randomized, single blind, controlled study conducted in two tertiary urogynecological centers. 154 patients were allocated to either TVT-O or TVT-Secur and were contacted 5 years after the procedure to undergo urogynecological examination (POP-Q staging, challenge stress test and post-void residual urine evaluation), to complete I-QOL and PGI-I questionnaires, and to score their satisfaction on a 5-point Likert scale. Patients who were not objectively evaluated were interviewed over the telephone. Primary outcome was subjective success defined as being “very much improved” or “much improved” on the PGI-I. Results 120 patients were evaluated only subjectively (TVT-O: 62; TVT-Secur: 58) and 84 objectively and subjectively (TVT-O: 46; TVT-Secur: 38). Subjective success (79% vs. 63.8%) and objective cure rates (82.6% vs. 68.4%) 5 years after the procedure were lower for TVT-Secur, but not significantly. Recurrent UTIs were reported by 17.8% of women (TVT-O 9, TVT-Secur 6) and two de novo urgency cases (one per group) were observed. Re-operation rate for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) was 20%. Conclusions TVT-Secur did not show an inferior subjective success rate in comparison with TVT-O five year after the original procedure, even though displaying a clear trend toward a lower efficacy. Considering that the long-term safety profile is similar between the two procedures, there are no advantages in using TVT-Secur.