Pubovaginal sling using allograft fascia lata versus autograft fascia for all types of stress urinary incontinence: 2-year minimum follow-up

Purpose: Allografts have been substituted for autografts as a pubovaginal sling to decrease postoperative morbidity, although to our knowledge their long-term durability is unknown. Since 1997, we have offered allograft fascia lata as an alternative to autograft fascia in women undergoing the pubovaginal sling procedure, We describe our continued experience with those with a minimum 2-year followup. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 134 consecutive women with all types of stress urinary incontinence but without neurovesical voiding dysfunction or a significant degree of pelvic prolapse who underwent pubovaginal sling (allografts in 63 and autografts in 71) performed by a single surgeon. Rectus abdominis or fascia lata autograft and freeze-dried, gamma irradiated allograft slings were placed using identical techniques and a 2 X 12 cm. piece of fascia. Outcome analysis included a chart review, third party telephone interview and selective videourodynamics. Surgical outcome was categorized by daily pad use as cured-0, improved-1 or failed-greater than 1 pad. Results: Of 140 women who received a pubovaginal sling 134 were still evaluable. Preoperative parameters were similar in each group. Mean followup plus or minus standard deviation was less in the allograft group (29 +/- 3 versus 44 +/- 7 months, p < 0.05). There was no statistical difference in the overall stress and urge incontinence cure rate in the allograft and autograft groups (45 of 63 cases and 55 of 71, p = 0.42), nor was there a difference in the total number with recurrent stress urinary incontinence (8 and 7, respectively, p = 0.58). In 24% and 16% of cases postoperative incontinence was due to urge incontinence in the allograft and autograft groups, respectively. Using allografts instead of autografts resulted in a significantly decreased postoperative pain and disability (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Using allograft fascia lata as an alternative to autologous fascia for a pubovaginal sling significantly decreases postoperative pain and disability without compromising efficacy at 2 years. Therefore, we believe that allograft fascia should remain a suitable alternative to autografts for pubovaginal slings.