Tension-free vaginal tape: a quality-of-life assessment

To assess whether tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) results in significant improvements in urinary incontinence and its effect on patients' quality of life (QOL) utilizing two validated questionnaires.

One hundred sixty-two tension-free vaginal tape procedures were performed at two sites between October 1998 and January 2001. All patients were requested to complete the Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ-7) and Urinary Distress Inventory (UDI-6) as part of their preoperative assessment. History, physical, and demographic data were also collected. All subjects underwent subtracted cystometry and urethral function tests prior to surgery. A combination of mail and phone follow-up was used to obtain postoperative IIQ-7 and UDI-6 scores in October 2001. Data were analyzed with the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test.

One hundred fifty-one patients completed the pre- and postoperative quality-of-life forms and were included in the analysis. Mean follow-up was 22.1 months (range 6.1-49.8). There were significant improvements in postoperative scores for both the IIQ-7 and the UDI-6 (P <.001). Significant improvements were also seen in subscales measuring urge symptoms, stress incontinence symptoms, and symptoms of voiding dysfunction. These improvements were consistent, regardless of type or severity of stress incontinence.

The IIQ-7 and UDI-6 are validated tools that can be used to provide some objective evidence for the impact of urinary incontinence on patients' lives. Utilizing these two validated quality-of-life tools we show that tension-free vaginal tape results in significant improvement in patient quality of life and symptoms of urgency, stress incontinence, and voiding dysfunction.