Important clinical outcomes in urogynecology: views of patients, nurses and medical staff.

We attempted to grade treatment outcomes in female urinary incontinence by the perceived importance of these outcomes for patients, nursing staff and medical staff. One hundred millimeter visual analog scales (VAS) quantifying the relative importance of five clinical outcomes were sent to 100 patients, 50 nursing staff and 135 medical staff involved in continence care and median VAS scores for each outcome were compared between groups. Subjective improvement and improvement in quality of life were rated most highly. Median scores for subjective cure were 93 (76-99) for nurses, 93 (11-100) for patients and 91 (50-100) for ICS (UK) members. Median quality of life improvement scores were 92 (67-100), 93 (3-100) and 93 (74-100), respectively (not significant). There was a striking concordance of opinion regarding the importance of subjective improvement and improvement in quality of life. We suggest that these should become primary outcome measures in all future clinical trials and audits of incontinence treatments.