One-year objective and functional outcomes of a randomized clinical trial of vaginal mesh for prolapse

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to show 12-month outcomes of a randomized trial that compared vaginal prolapse repair with and without mesh.

Study design: Women with stage ≥2 prolapse were assigned randomly to vaginal repair with or without mesh. The primary outcome was prolapse stage ≤1 at 12 months. Secondary outcomes included quality of life and complications.

Results: All 65 evaluable participants were followed for 12 months after trial stoppage for mesh exposures. Thirty-two women had mesh repair; 33 women had traditional repair. At 12 months, both groups had improvement of pelvic organ prolapse-quantification test points to similar recurrence rates. The quality of life improved and did not differ between groups: 96.2% mesh vs 90.9% no-mesh subjects reported a cure of bulge symptoms; 15.6% had mesh exposures, and reoperation rates were higher with mesh.

Conclusion: Objective and subjective improvement is seen after vaginal prolapse repair with or without mesh. However, mesh resulted in a higher reoperation rate and did not improve 1-year cure.