Tension free vaginal tape (TVT) Abbrevo and Miniarc suburethral sling in women with stress urinary incontinence – a Randomised Controlled Trial

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Female stress urinary incontinence, which is exertional or activity related urinary incontinence commonly brought on by coughing and sneezing, is both common and have a high burden of suffering. The traditional operation to treat stress urinary incontinence has been open colposuspension, which involve an abdominal skin incision and a hospital stay of at least 5 days. Modern advances involve development of minimally invasive procedures which saw the introduction of tension free vaginal tapes (TVT) and transobturator tape (e.g. Monarc, TVT Obturator) which provides good success rates when compared to the traditional operation, although with the advantage of a quicker recovery. These procedures involve inserting slings made of synthetic material underneath the water pipe (urethra) to provide support. They exit through the abdomen, in the case of TVT or through the groin in the case of Monarc. Although these operations work very well, they do come with known complications such as bleeding and bladder injury, voiding difficulty or thigh pain. Whilst similar to the Monarc procedure, MiniArc it is placed using a very small incision and has no exit site. TVT Abbrevo is similar to the established TVT Obturator, except it comes with a shorter sling that do not come into potential contact with the thigh muscles thereby reducing risk of groin pain. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the success of these two types of surgical procedures (MiniArc and TVT Abbrevo) in the treatment of women with stress urinary incontinence.