We wanted to evaluate the clinical efficacy, safety and satisfaction of patients with IRIS-transobturator tape (TOT) operation for the women suffering with stress urinary incontinence.

53 women with stress urinary incontinence who underwent the TOT procedure between February 2004 and June 2005 were included in this study. Preoperatively, the patients were evaluated with history taking, a physical examination, a voiding diary, a one-hour pad test, uroflowmetry and the post voided residual urine. The procedure was carried out using a previously established method under local anesthesia for 37 patients and under spinal anesthesia for 16 patients. The post-operative symptoms and patient satisfaction were assessed by questionnaire.

The patients' mean age was 49.6 years (average age: 35-73 years). The mean follow-up was 10.9 months (average follow-up: 3-20 months). The mean operation time was 30.2 minutes (average time: 20-50 minutes). The mean duration of the post operative indwelling catheter was 1 hour for local anesthesia and 18 hours (range: 14-20 hours) for spinal anesthesia. Of the 53 patients, 49 (92.4%) of the patients were cured and 4 (7.6%) were significantly improved. The postoperative complications were urinary retention in 4 patients, and tape exposure by vaginal erosion in 1 patient. De novo urgency occurred in 1 patient and de novo urge incontinence occurred in 1 patient.

Despite the short term follow-up period, the IRIS-TOT procedure is simple, effective and less invasive for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence in terms of the high success rate and the low complication rates.