Patient-perceived outcomes of the AdVance sling up to 40 months post procedure

The objective of this study was to determine patient-perceived outcomes of the AdVance sling over 40 months and to determine if results were durable over time.

This study represents a retrospective chart review of a single-surgeon's experience with the AdVance sling paired with a follow-up 5 question telephone survey performed in April 2010. The telephone survey consisted of 2 validated questions pertaining to patient satisfaction (the PGI-I and the PGI-S) along with 3 additional questions pertaining to number of pads per day (PPD) used, additional therapies tried, and whether or not the patient would recommend the procedure to a friend. Ordinal and non-normally distributed variables were analyzed via rank order correlation (Spearman's rho) and the association between the number of pads per day used at the time of telephone survey and progressing time since sling procedure was plotted with linear regression analysis.

The surgeon performed a total of 44 AdVance sling procedures from 2006 to April 2011. 42 charts were available for review and 36 (85.7%) patients were reached via telephone. Average patient age was 63.64 years and average time in months since sling procedure was 18.76. Average number of PPD used was 2.11 preoperatively, 0.38 at the one month post-operative visit, and 1.67 at time of the telephone survey. Additionally, advancing time since sling operation correlated with higher numbers of PPD. 34/36 patients would recommend the procedure to a friend.

Despite patient satisfaction with the sling procedure, our data show that patients were using an increasing number of PPD as time from sling procedure advanced. This is important information for patients and physicians to consider when choosing this procedure.