Transvaginal Tension Free Vaginal Tape-Obturator (TVT-O) Versus Transobturator Tape-Mentor (TOT) in the Management of Urodynamic Stress Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence (involuntary leakage of urine) is an extremely common, distressing and socially disabling condition. It is known to affect up to 14 % of the adult female population in the United Kingdom. Sufferers tend to become social recluses, not wanting to socialise for fear of embarrassment and ridicule. It typically takes up to 5 years from the onset of symptoms for a patient to admit their problem, seek help and reach a specialist. Unfortunately, it is commonest in the elderly when the incidence is as high as 50% in some studies. Furthermore, this group of patients are the least likely to seek help, the least likely to receive help and up until recently the least likely to be cured of their problems.

Things are improving however, as everyone is more prepared to talk about this awful condition rather than accept it as a part of growing old. Furthermore, better treatments are becoming available which can help the old as well as the young.

Two years ago a new operation for urinary leakage was launched in the United Kingdom (UK). This is a smaller operation than those previously available and more suitable for the frail and elderly. We, the researchers at South Glasgow University Hospital, have been using this operation for 18 months with good success. Several versions however are now on the market, some much more expensive than the original, and perhaps not as good. We need to know which one is best and hence we intend to do a study to find out.

We aim to select patients with leakage to have one or the other operation and to follow the patients over several years to find out which operation is best, safest, lasts longest and is most acceptable to patients. Only then will we know which of the versions of this procedure we should be offering our patients.