Five cases of tape erosion after transobturator surgery for urinary incontinence.

Abstract

Before introducing the transobturator tape into our practice we undertook 52 transobturator tape procedures. The transobturator tape procedures were undertaken with an "outside-in" approach, using nonwoven polypropylene mesh with average pore size of 50 mum. Five cases of vaginal erosions have been identified, 1 complicated by a groin abscess. All cases required further procedures to trim (n = 3), resect (n = 1) or remove (n = 1) the tape. One woman had a tension-free vaginal tape procedure. To date, 3 women remain incontinent. Possible reasons for the complications include 1) surgical inexperience (unlikely, given that we have undertaken more than 2000 tension-free vaginal tape procedures without similar complication rates); 2) inherent susceptibility of the "hammock" position of the transobturator tape; or 3) the nonwoven polypropylene tape with mesh size of 50 microm itself may predispose to erosion or abscess.