Treatment of female stress urinary incontinence with the TVT (tension-free vaginal tape) system: our experience

The TVT system is a new surgical procedure for female stress urinary incontinence. The object of this study is to report our initial experience with this technique. We report our results and complications too. From April 1999 to July 2000, 23 systems TVT was implanted in our hospital. The patients were followed for a 6 to 21 month period. All the patients had stress incontinence. The mean age was 59 years. Gynaecological surgery was associated in 4 patients. One of them was excluded because a diagnosis mistake. TVT implies the implantation of a prolene tape around mid-urethra via a minimal vaginal incision. 17 patients (77.27%) had a significantly improved in the post-operative evaluation. The mean post-surgical stay in the hospital was 1.7 days. A bladder base was damaged during the surgery. No urinary retention, erosion or urethral lesion were found. We consider the TVT operation to be a safe and effective surgical procedure for the treatment of female urinary stress incontinence. This surgery is easy to lean, fast, cheap and with a low rate of complications.