LAS VEGAS – An overwhelming proportion of patients who underwent sacrocolpopexy, a surgical procedure to reposition vaginal vault prolapse, reported that they were satisfied with surgery outcomes and would undergo the procedure again, results of a small survey presented during a poster session at the American Academy of Physician Assistants’ 29th Annual PA Meeting indicate.
Uterine prolapse is a common condition that occurs in 50% of women aged older than 50 years.
Terri Bacon-Baguley, PA-C, a professor in the department of the physician assistant studies at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Mich., and students surveyed 100 patients that underwent daVinci robotic scrocolpopexy from Oct. 2007 to March 2010 to assess patient quality of life before and after the procedure.
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Fifty-seven patients completed the surveys, which included the Pelvic Floor Impact Questionnaire-7 (PFIQ-7), as well as several open-ended questions. Patients were between the ages of 40 and 83 years old, with an average BMI of 27.5.
Survey results revealed the following patient attitudes after surgery:
- 94.7% of patients would have the surgery again
- 51.8% had no vaginal prolapse symptoms
- 30.4% reported no colorectal symptoms
- 26.8% reported no urinary complaints
Significant improvements were also noted in mean PFIQ-7 scores in the three areas assessed – bladder (25.42 pre-surgery vs. 10.37 post-surgery; P<0.001), bowel (12.33 vs. 5.10; P=.007) and vaginal symptoms (21.89 vs. 4.69; P<0.001) – as well as improvements in overall health (58.98 vs. 19.88; P<0.001).
No patients reported having worse symptoms after surgery.
