Which women develop urgency or urgency urinary incontinence following midurethral slings?

De novo urgency has a negative impact on women after midurethral sling (MUS). We aimed to identify risk factors for de novo urgency (dU) and urgency urinary incontinence (dUUI) following MUS, using multivariate analysis.

We investigated 358 consecutive women with only stress urinary incontinence (SUI) [or urodynamic stress incontinence (USI)] and 598 women with both SUI (or USI) and urgency (but not UUI) who underwent MUS with a mean follow-up of 50 months. Women who developed dU or dUUI at long-term follow-up were compared to those who did not.

dU occurred in 27.7 % (99/358) and dUUI occurred in 13.7 % (82/598) of women at long-term follow-up after midurethral sling. Intrinsic sphincter deficiency {odds ratio (OR) dU 3.94 [95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.50-10.38]; OR dUUI 2.5 (1.31-4.80)}, previous stress incontinence surgery [sling: OR dU 3.69 (1.45-9.37); colposuspension: OR dUUI 2.5 (1.23-5.07)], previous prolapse surgery [OR dU 2.45 (1.18-5.10)], preexisting detrusor overactivity [OR dU 1.99 (1.15-3.48); OR dUUI 1.85 (1.31-2.60)] increased the risk, whereas performing concomitant apical prolapse surgery [OR dU 0.5 (0.41-0.81); OR dUUI 0.29 (0.087-0.97)] significantly decreased the risk. Women are more likely to not recommend surgery when they experienced dU (18.2 vs 0.8 %, p < 0.0001) or dUUI (20.7 vs 2.1 %, p < 0.0001).

Urodynamic parameters, history of prior incontinence or prolapse surgery and concomitant apical prolapse operation were important predictors of dU or dUUI following MUS.