Patient Reported Recovery After Surgery

Literature assessing patient-perceived recovery after urogynecologic surgery is limited, and postoperative activity restrictions vary widely among surgeons.

The objective of this study was to describe patient-reported recovery in women undergoing minimally invasive surgery for pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and/or stress urinary incontinence (SUI).

We performed a prospective cohort study of women undergoing minimally invasive urogynecologic surgery between September 2023 and November 2024 at a single tertiary care center. Women were provided liberal postoperative activity recommendations with no restrictions on lifting or high-impact activities. Participants were asked the following question weekly for 6 weeks after surgery: "To what extent do you feel physically recovered after surgery?" Answer choices were "I don't feel at all recovered," "I feel recovered up to 25%," "I feel recovered up to 50%," "I feel recovered up to 75%," and "I feel fully recovered." For analysis, we defined "recovered" as patients who answered "I feel recovered up to 75%" or "I feel fully recovered."

Fifty-four women had POP surgery, and 50 had an isolated midurethral sling (MUS) placed for SUI. After POP surgery, most women (53.7%) met the definition of "recovered" by 2 weeks, and 92.6% were recovered at 6 weeks. Two thirds of participants (62.0%) were recovered at 1 week after MUS surgery, and 86% were recovered by 6 weeks.

Most women felt recovered within 1 week after MUS surgery and 2 weeks after POP surgery, supporting evidence-based, unrestricted postoperative activity instructions after urogynecologic surgery.