Obesity and Native Tissue Repairs: A Secondary Analysis of the OPTIMAL Trial

The Operations and Pelvic Muscle Training in the Management of Apical Support Loss (OPTIMAL) Trial compared sacrospinous ligament fixation (SSLF) and uterosacral ligament suspension (ULS) surgical outcomes. Increasing body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk of pelvic organ prolapse, and the prevalence of obesity is increasing worldwide.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the effect of obesity on the results of native tissue vaginal apical suspension procedures.

This was a secondary analysis of the OPTIMAL Trial data set. Subgroup analysis was performed to compare surgical failure rates between SSLF and ULS across BMI subgroups after 2 years.

There were 75, 120, 63, and 39 patients in the normal, overweight, class 1 obesity, and class 2 obesity or greater BMI subgroups, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in surgical failure rates between SSLF and ULS within BMI subgroups; however, failure rates increased in the ULS group between the nonobese and obese groups (normal, 35.9% SSLF vs 30.6% ULS [ P = 0.81]; overweight, 38.6% vs 30.2% [ P = 0.44]; class 1 obesity, 38.7% vs 40.6% [ P = 0.92]; class 2 obesity or greater, 21.1% vs 45% [ P = 0.21]).

The risk of surgical failure between SSLF and ULS was not significant across BMI subgroups. Additional investigation is required to further elucidate whether SSLF or ULS is a more reliable option for obese patients.