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Introduction In 2001, the trans-obturator route was proposed for the surgical positioning of tape with a view to avoiding the retropubic space and its disadvantages. The route, originally described outside-in by Delorme was presented inside-out by de Leval. Since then, anatomical discussions have attempted to prove that one technique is safer than the other. Objective Demonstrating the safety of the two techniques through personal and published experience. Material and methods Non-randomized, prospective, observational, open-label, longitudinal study of 100 female patients (50 tension-free vaginal tape (TVT)-O ® and 50 Monarc ® ). All the female patients presented with isolated stress urinary incontinence. Only four patients presented with mixed incontinence in the Monarc (MON) group. Sphincter incompetence was observed four times in the MON group and three times in the TVT-O group. Almost all the patients were undergoing their first procedure. All the patients underwent surgery under assisted local anesthesia in a day-hospital setting. All the patients underwent a full gynecological examination and a urodynamic assessment. Only those patients presenting with patent established urinary incontinence, corrected by the TVT test, underwent surgery. Post-operative control was conducted at 3 months and 1 year when a physical examination and urodynamic assessment were implemented. Results All the patients underwent control up to time point 12 months. The duration of hospitalization was 10 h for 48 patients in the MON group and 49 in the TVT-O group. The duration of hospitalization was 24 h for one patient in each group and 4 days for one patient in the TVT-O group due to transient urine retention. The only per-operative complication was a vaginal perforation in the lateral angle of the vagina for a MON patient. Tape repositioning was necessary. Early post-operative complications were observed in the MON group: three cases of urinary tract infection, one of transient urine retention, three of pain in the thighs spontaneously resolving within 4 days and one of permanent pain in one leg at time 1 year, which remained bearable. For the TVT-O group the post-operative complications consisted in: one case of urinary tract infection, one of transient retention and four of pain in the thigh. No hematoma was reported in either group. Amongst the late complications, the de novo symptoms included one case of imperious urges to urinate in the TVT-O group and objective dysuria in two cases in the MON group versus seven in the TVT-O group. There was no statistically significant between-group difference in the complications. No tape exposure was observed. Overall, the recovery rate was 90% at 1 year for MON versus 94% for TVT-O ( p = NS) with two cases of recurrence between 3 months and 1 year in that series. Mixed incontinence was corrected at time point 1 year in 75% of cases for MON, with one case of recurrence in the year. For the patients presenting with sphincter incompetence, competence was maintained at 3 months and 1 year in all cases in the MON group. The three TVT-O were cured at 3 months, but two recurrences were observed at 1 year. Almost all the patients were satisfied or very satisfied at time point 1 year and those who had sexual relations (54%) did not report any disorder at time point 1 year. Discussion The outside-in technique necessitates more marked peri-urethral dissection and vesical complications are possible. The cadaveric studies by the outside-in partisans show a vascular and nervous risk, which has little reflection in terms of complications in the literature. Post-operative leg pains are encountered with both techniques and are usually only transient. All the studies of the two routes report a recovery rate of over 90% for pure stress incontinence. Conclusion The author's experience, like that reported in the literature, shows that the two trans-obturator access routes are equally safe and do not require per-operative cystoscopic control. The clinical results would appear to be equivalent, in terms of recovery, to the rates obtained with retropubic TVT. Attempting to find anatomical or etiological arguments in order to prove one technique superior to the other appears somewhat parochial.

With an experience of 287 vaginal way operations using synthetic material, the authors make a review about the tolerance of the tissues. Three tissues were used (polytetrafluoroethylene, Dacron and Lyodura). The procedures are: Mouchel, big and small slings, Stamey and para vaginal refect procedures. At 30 months, the tolerance is 70% for Mouchel and 90% for sling procedures. The rejection rate with Dacron is globally 19.3% vs. 30.3% for Gore Tex ® . The authors describe materials' history, clinical symptoms and histopathologic signs of the intolerance. They think that the synthetic tissue tolerance is proportional to the exhibit surface and to the distance which separates it from the scar. The substratum of the intolerance process answers with two explanations: infection and foreign body reaction. Different theories are explained. Infection can be an ethiologic factor in early rejection. With rigid material, a small ulcer is formed and serves as a nidus for an ascending infection. Foreign material acts as an adjuvant by decreasing the number of bacteria necessary to produce an infection.The tissue reaction may be an immune response to Dacron, a delayed hypersensitivity reaction, or a graft vs. host antigen-antibody reaction. The ideal synthetic mesh material for pelvic surgery has yet to be developed.

It is difficult to make a choice among the many surgical procedures designed for the correction of stress urinary incontinence by the vaginal route because their results have not been correctly compared. The Bologna (B) operation uses two flaps from the anterior vaginal wall that are anchored to the abdominal wall; the Ingelman-Sundberg (IS) operation is a suburethral sling made from two transplants from the pubococcygeus muscle. A prospective randomized study has been carried out in order to compare these two procedures. A selection of cases has been based upon the presence of genuine or potential stress incontinence, genital prolapse and available tissues (anterior vaginal wall excess and palpable pubococcygeus muscles) for both procedures. No significant difference was noted for clinical results (91.7% and 93.7% of patients cured by the B and IS operations, respectively) or for transmission rate gain at 3 months and 1 year. Maximum urethral closing pressure was maintained in both treatment arms. No significant postoperative complication or persistent dysuria occurred. The Bologna procedure is best indicated in case of frank anterior vaginal excess, and the Ingelman-Sundberg procedure when strong anterior parts of pubococcygeus muscles are available. Both are excellent in the cure of stress incontinence associated with genital prolapse.