Transobturator tape procedure in stress urinary incontinence: UK experience of a district general hospital.

We aimed to assess the effectiveness and complications of transobturator tape (TOT) in the treatment of female stress urinary incontinence (SUI). This was a retrospective study of case notes of women who had a TOT procedure between December 2003 and July 2005 at a district general hospital. We reviewed 135 case notes on the TOT procedures performed during the study period. Mean age was 55.9 years (range 28-93 years). The mean follow-up period was 3 months (range 6 weeks-12 months). There were no major complications and 18 minor complications were noted. Six patients were lost to follow-up. In the short term, the subjective level of complete cure and improvement reported by patients was 89.6% and 8.8%, respectively. The cure rates were not related to the patient's body mass index (BMI), preoperative urodynamics (UDS), previous pelvic surgery, type of anaesthesia, concomitant pelvic surgery or occurrence of complications. TOT seems to be a safe and effective procedure for treating female SUI, avoiding the major risks of the retropubic approach. A robustly designed randomised controlled trial with long-term follow-up is necessary to assess long-term success rate and complications when compared with other procedures.