Patients with Sacral Neuromodulation: What Are the Factors Affecting Their Therapy Satisfaction?

Technology has brought about changes to the sacral neuromodulation (SNM) therapy and has rendered it as a minimally invasive procedure. The presence of tined lead, smaller implantable pulse generator, and the different available patient programmers are the factors new modifications this procedure; however, no enough data are available about patient satisfaction comparing these different parameters. We therefore conducted our study among SNM-implanted patients, assessing factors affecting long-term satisfaction.

We conducted a cross-sectional study with a survey questionnaire for all SNM-implanted patients from December 2011 to May 2012. The survey questionnaire included information on patient demographics, level of satisfaction, and the need for combined medical therapy for symptom control, type of programmer used by patient, and their ability to use it efficiently.

A total of 117 patients visited the clinic in that duration, and 71 patients filled up the survey questionnaire, with a response rate of 60.7%, diagnosis OAB 41 (57.7%), chronic non-obstructive retention 15 (21.1%) and frequency-urgency syndrome 15 (21.1%). Forty-nine (69%) of patients were on SNM therapy alone, while 31% patients needed other forms of therapy for symptoms control. The types of patient programmers used were old programmers in 10 (14.1%), new programmers in 44 (62%), and twin programmers in 4 patients. Patient SNM therapy satisfaction level was 95.8%, while 3 patients (4.2%) were not satisfied. SNM therapy satisfaction showed that it was correlated with the need for combined therapy for symptoms control (correlation coefficient 0.341, p value = 0.004), but there was no correlation with age, duration of therapy, complication, or programmer type.

SNM satisfaction in patients is mainly correlated with the need for additional medications for symptom control.