[Role of endoscopy in surgery for urinary incontinence]

In France, approximately 2 or 3 million women suffer from urinary incontinence. A consensus has been reached about the safety of treatment of genuine urinary stress incontinence by retropubic colposuspension (Burch procedure). The cure rate for the abdominal Burch procedure is 85% after 5 years. Since 1991, laparoscopic retropubic colposuspension has been advocated for the treatment urinary stress incontinence. The procedure can be performed either by laparoscopic intraperitoneal or extraperitoneal approaches or by associated laparoscopic and vaginal routes. The feasibility of laparoscopic colposuspension has been proved. Indeed, a series including 578 patients, showed a laparoconversion rate of 3.6%. The most frequent complication of colposuspension is bladder injury. The majority of cystotomics were treated laparoscopically. The follow-up in this series is relatively short. After one year, the success rate was 96%. However, these results must be confirmed by other series with longer follow-up and by prospective randomized studies.