Efficacy and safety of Elevate® system on apical and anterior compartment prolapse repair with personal technique modification

ABSTRACT Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Anterior Elevate® mesh kit system (AES) in woman with symptomatic stage 3 or 4 anterior and/or apical pelvic organ prolapse (POP). Materials and Methods: This retrospective, monocentric, single surgeon study enrolled between May 2010 and January 2013 fifty-six woman experiencing symptomatic anterior vaginal prolapse with or without apical descent (POP-Q stage 3 or 4). All women received a AES and 7 (12.5%) received a concomitant transvaginal hysterectomy. Primary endpoint was anatomic correction of prolapse; success was defined as POP-Q stage ≤ 1 or asymptomatic stage 2. Secondary endpoints were quality-of-life (QOL) results and patients' safety outcomes, which were assessed by 3 validated self-reporting questionnaires at baseline and annually: ICIQ-UI short form, ICIQ-VS and P-QOL. All patients completed 2-years and 28 women 3-years of follow-up. Surgical approach was modified in women with uterus, moving the two-propylene strips anteriorly around the cervix itself crossing one another, so the left will take place in the right side and the right on the opposite. This modification was made in order to better support the uterus. Results: Vaginal mesh exposure was present in 3 (5,3%) patients. Very good anatomical outcomes were seen, with one (1,8%) failure at 6-months, 4 (7,1%) at 1-year, 6 at 2-years (10,7%). Statistically significant improvements were seen in the ICIQ-VS and P-QOL questionnaires throughout follow-up. Conclusion: Our data suggest that AES is a minimally-invasive transvaginal procedure to repair anterior and apical POP, with good evidence related to mid-term safety and efficacy.</div

Overactive bladder – 18 years – Part II

ABSTRACT Traditionally, the treatment of overactive bladder syndrome has been based on the use of oral medications with the purpose of reestablishing the detrusor stability. The recent better understanding of the urothelial physiology fostered conceptual changes, and the oral anticholinergics – pillars of the overactive bladder pharmacotherapy – started to be not only recognized for their properties of inhibiting the detrusor contractile activity, but also their action on the bladder afference, and therefore, on the reduction of the symptoms that constitute the syndrome. Beta-adrenergic agonists, which were recently added to the list of drugs for the treatment of overactive bladder, still wait for a definitive positioning – as either a second-line therapy or an adjuvant to oral anticholinergics. Conservative treatment failure, whether due to unsatisfactory results or the presence of adverse side effects, define it as refractory overactive bladder. In this context, the intravesical injection of botulinum toxin type A emerged as an effective option for the existing gap between the primary measures and more complex procedures such as bladder augmentation. Sacral neuromodulation, described three decades ago, had its indication reinforced in this overactive bladder era. Likewise, the electric stimulation of the tibial nerve is now a minimally invasive alternative to treat those with refractory overactive bladder. The results of the systematic literature review on the oral pharmacological treatment and the treatment of refractory overactive bladder gave rise to this second part of the review article Overactive Bladder – 18 years, prepared during the 1st Latin-American Consultation on Overactive Bladder