A large study by a team of urologists and urogynecologists has found that in a comparison of the two traditional surgical operations for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in women, using an internal sling to support the uretha was more effective than colposuspension.
Urinary incontinence is a common and costly condition that affects the quality of life for many women.
Stress urinary incontinence, in which coughing, laughing, sneezing, running or lifting heavy objects causes urine to leak, is commonly treated with surgery designed to provide additional support to the bladder neck and urethra during increases in abdominal pressure that occur with these kinds of activities.
Both techniques aim to reduce urinary stress incontinence by lifting the urethra into the normal position after it has dropped down with age.
The researchers found that women appeared to be happier with a procedure that uses a sling of tendon, muscle or other material to hold the urine tube than another technique that anchors the tube to ligament for preventing urine leakage.
However one drawback seems to be that the sling method appears to produce more long-term side effects; it made women more prone to urinary tract infections, the women sometimes found it harder to urinate, and they were more likely to suffer from the sudden need to urinate.
Although the sling was more effective in fixing a certain type of incontinence in women no procedure worked perfectly.
The problem of stress incontinence in women is not uncommon and up to 10 percent of U.S. women have some kind of surgery to prevent leakage, particularly when they cough, sneeze or strain, and as many as 40 percent of older woman have some degree of incontinence.
The study monitored women for two years after surgery, which was considered successful by asking whether a woman reported leaking or whether she leaked while coughing.